Ofcom, the UK telecoms regulator, has carried out a study which reveals that broadband speeds are much lower that those advertised by ISPs. Ofcom took 60 million readings in over 1600 households between November 2008 and April 2009 to compare the real-world performance of broadband service. No one is shocked to find out that ISPs play fast and loose with the term “up to”.
The results show that:
- although one quarter of users are happy with the speed of their broadband connection, they said the speed they received was not what they expected when they signed up;
- average broadband was in April 2009 was 4.1 Mbps compared to the average “up to” advertised speed of 7.1 Mbps;
- fewer than one tenth of those who had purchased packages advertising up to 8 Mbps got over 6 Mbps and one fifth received less than 2 Mbps;
- cable customers received significantly faster speeds than those using ADSL; and
- AOL and BT had the worst performance, while Virgin Media did best among the ISPs.
Comparison of top 9 ISPs in the UK showing average speeds
AOL (‘up to’ 8Mbps): 3.3 to 3.9Mbps
BT (‘up to’ 8Mbps): 3.8 to 4.2Mbps
O2 (‘up to’ 8Mbps): 4.1 to 5.1Mbps
Orange (‘up to’ 8Mbps): 3.8 to 4.5Mbps
Plusnet (‘up to’ 8Mbps): 3.8 to 4.9Mbps
Sky (‘up to’ 8Mbps): 4.0 to 4.7Mbps
Talk Talk (‘up to’ 8Mbps): 3.8 to 4.6Mbps
Tiscali (‘up to’ 8Mbps): 3.2 to 3.7Mbps
Virgin Media (‘up to’ 10Mbps): 8.1 to 8.7Mbps
Read more: Ofcom reveals real UK broadband speeds.
Ofcom has a voluntary broadband speeds Code of Practice. ISPs who sign up to the Code are required to tell new customers the average speeds they are likely to experience and to tell them how to improve broadband performance.
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