By David Meyer, 8 January 2009 16:53
NEWS
Ofcom has published the initial findings of its research into the real speeds UK consumers are getting from their broadband connections.
According to a preliminary version of the telecommunications regulator's UK Broadband Speeds 2008 report, published on Thursday, the average downlink speed is 3.6Mbps. That represents around half the average speed of 7.2Mbps promised by ISPs. Even the average maximum line speed, which is the speed a broadband connection could achieve in ideal conditions, is just 4.3Mbps.
Ofcom intends to use the final results of the study, due for publication in the spring, as the basis for policy adjustments. That final version of the report will provide a further breakdown of results, including a comparison of performance by provider.
Broadband from A to Z
Click on the links below to find out more...
A is for ADSL
B is for BT
C is for Cable & Wireless
D is for Dial-up
E is for Education
F is for Fibre
G is for Goonhilly
H is for HSDPA
I is for In-flight
J is for Janet
K is for Kingston
L is for Landlines
M is for Murdoch
N is for Next generation
O is for Ofcom
P is for Power lines
Q is for Quad-play
R is for Remote working
S is for Satellite phones
T is for Trains
U is for Unbundling
V is for VoIP
W is for WiMax
X is for Xbox
Y is for YouTube
Z is for Zombies
In December, the regulator convinced a majority of UK ISPs to sign up to a voluntary code of practice that commits them to being honest about the real speeds their customers will get.
Ofcom's chief executive, Ed Richards, said in a statement on Thursday: "We want to see all internet service providers meet the needs of their customers by clearly explaining what speeds they should expect and by ensuring that their networks meet consumers' increasing demand for higher-speed broadband.
"We have already seen the first steps towards next-generation super-fast broadband in the UK, and we expect further developments this year. Ofcom will publish the next steps for the regulatory framework early this year."
The initial findings of Ofcom's report indicate that people promised a maximum speed of 8Mbps are getting, on average, only 3.6Mbps. One in five of them are seeing an average speed of less than 2Mbps.
Over 30 days in October and November 2008, Ofcom ran around 7,000 tests through monitoring devices that were connected to routers in 1,500 homes. That resulted in more than 10 million separate tests of broadband services, the regulator said.
According to Ofcom, 93 per cent of people surveyed were happy with their overall web-browsing experience but that figure dropped to 67 per cent when it came to the use of more bandwidth-intensive applications such as internet TV.
Dissatisfaction with broadband quality was higher among rural users (14 per cent) than urban users (eight per cent). The study also found that the slowest web-surfing time is between 17:00(GMT) and 18:00(GMT) on Sundays, when web-usage levels are at their highest.
James Parker, the broadband manager at moneysupermarket.com, said in a statement on Thursday that Ofcom's findings showed "how little consumers get for their money".
He said: "Although prices for broadband are falling rapidly, the speed [at] which providers are moving to help consumers get a better deal is slowing. The voluntary code may mean customers are advised of what speed they get before purchasing a new deal, but it does nothing to help consumers get the actual speed they pay for."
Comments
There are 7 comments. Join the discussion
1. Richard Davies
Getting bandwidth in my area is abit like getting blood out of a stone.
My ISP charges me for an upto 8Mb connection and I get 1Mb. I have rung them and BT several times yet nothing ever comes of it.
Just in case your wondering, my internal wiring has been completely bypassed for a while now and so I know its not a problem on my end.
ISP's and BT should have SLA's forced on them and also be forced to re-invest profits to ensure the infrastructure is ready for tommorows bandwidth requirements.
2. anonymous
If people used good service providers ( without mentioning any names)and paid proper money for their service they would get better speeds. I have experience in a number of locations where I have installed adsl and I get speeds like 6.5MB with Plusnet and 17MB with BE. Using good filters and disconnecting the ringer wire had always gone along way to fixing any slow connections I've had.
3. Lionel A Smith
I am with the UK's cable INTERNET provider (but not for much longer if things don't improve) and am having an awful experience. I am not alone as recent discussions with other parties have shown.
The connection continually drops out which has caused me trouble when carrying out on-line transactions having authorized payment and then been left without access to the goods I have just purchased because the dropped connection prevented full authorization from completing.
I have suffered excruciating periods when trying to download software updates. One recent experience was an 80MB patch that took 4 hrs to arrive and I had to re-initiate connection with the vendor's server several times. This was a second attempt as something went wrong with the first download this only being evident after completion.
I also have to repeatedly log in to my ftp account during any update session which is very frustrating. At times I have resorted to my dial up connection because although slower at max it is more reliable. Having faster speeds is no good at all if a connection drops near the end of a transfer which often require starting all over.
PS. This is a second attempt to send this as my connection dropped during the process and it was lost. I have got into the habit of copying posts into a WP as fall back as rewriting is so time consuming. This problem really needs sorting.
PPS. A third attempt!
PPPS. Attempt #4. This is getting silly but it is one of those times of the day!
PPPPS. At this point I give up counting.
4. Lionel A Smith
The following was extracted from first post because of connection difficulty testing if there was a post length limit (I tried to send at least 10 times).
It is all very well offering faster speeds to those who can afford it or need it but why should others not receive a reliable basic service. I dare not do on-line banking and remote access to computers at base is out of the question.
Customer support try to blame the users system with favorites being Vista, routers or anything else on their prepared lists of answers. When my connection drops out my internal wireless network continues to work fine but according to CS the outside modem connection is fine. Go figure. The fact that this is a very intermittent, although frequent, phenomena makes it all to easy for CS to blame anything but their networks.
5. Simon
The big problem is one of perception. Too many people see "up to" and read that as "will be close to".
Now, if services were sold on the basis of committed rates (effectively like ADSL in the early days) then market forces would deal with it. I think most people could cope with the idea that ISP A offers them a CIR of 250k for £10/mo while ISP B offers a CIR of 1M for £15/mo and realise that B offers the better value (all other things considered).
It won't happen without it being imposed, and few ISPs want anyone to know just how low their CIRs are (based on backhaul capacity divided by subscribers sharing it)
6. Chris Owen
I am on Virgins 10mb package and I never see more then 5mb. The average sped last year was 4.16mb and on two days the speed was a woeful 0.46mb. I know that there can be issues but they are having a joke here. The helpdesk should be referred to as the hinderence system. Having tested things when there are problems they insist on following a script and then say oh yes you are correct. Then of course you have their service capping, oh sorry traffic management. You try to use the connection and oh look we have cut your speed back.
7. Andrew Meredith CEng CITP
In my experience of looking after small business customers in a variety of locations, the problem for the most part has simply been, old, wet or just plain dodgy copper. However, the stack of protocols and responsibilities in ADSL is so ridiculously over-complex that this presents a golden opportunity for the CS drones to blame everyone else but themselves.
Personally I want a little white box on the wall, owned and controlled by the telecomms operator, with a red/green "WAN" light, a "Link" light and an RJ45 Ethernet socket. When the WAN link is good, the WAN light is green. When there is an error, it's red. The Link light does the usual. As a customer, I really don't give a monkeys how the rest is done; ADSL or anything else. If the WAN light is red, it's their fault, end of. As far as the customer is concerned, the rest is just ethernet & DHCP; simple as that.
Of course, this leaves the customer entirely out of the support equation, so the ISPs will have nowhere left to hide, so three guesses how likely this approach is going to be.