UK businesses are losing £32 million a week as employees waste time hunting for mobile phone reception, an ip.access report has found.

The small cell solution company, ip.access, has found that UK office workers are collectively spending 2.53 million hours a week searching for better mobile coverage.

This comes after 61% of employees surveyed claimed to have poor or variable mobile reception at their place of work.

Surprisingly, even 50% of telecoms professionals stated that the mobile signal in their offices was inadequate. Additionally, 62% of employees in the finance sector and 59% of government or public service professionals face a similar problem with poor mobile phone reception.

Gavin Ray, SVP Products & Marketing at ip.access, said: "There is a fundamental issue here for businesses and mobile operators. It is pretty amazing that in an age where we have fridges that can tell you you’re out of milk; we are still faced with the age-old problem of patchy indoor mobile signal. Looking at these numbers it’s clearly the new time-thief for business."

"While companies across the UK are employing the latest technology to streamline processes and boost revenue, a reliable mobile signal has become a basic necessity, and the lack of one is having a detrimental effect on the productivity and flexibility of companies’ workforces. This surely feeds into missed revenue and growth opportunities."

The research showed that 42% of enterprise users are not aware of technologies that can solve signal issues in their place of work, with only 15% aware of small cells.

"Operators should be addressing the issue with a proportionate degree of urgency, and look to technology, such as small cells, to improve the coverage for businesses and their employees who are wasting precious time pursuing mobile signal."

The research is based upon 2,000 junior and senior level UK office workers and based upon the estimated number of office workers in the UK (7.69 million). Using data from the study that showed that 43.35% spent more than an hour a week searching for signal and 75.9% stating that they use their mobile at work. By calculating the average UK worker wage, the figure £32 million was reached.