Broadband speeds not living up to promise

By Bruce Stevens Staff Writer Tuesday, 2 August 2007

The fastest broadband packages in the UK Be Unlimited - Up to 24Mb O2 Ultimate - Up to 20Mb Virgin Media XL - Up to 20Mb UKOnline Premier - Up to 16Mb Related fast broadband news stories See our other recent news about UK broadband speeds: Future of UK Fast Broadband Becomes Clearer The future of broadband speeds in Britain is starting to become clearer as Ofcom wades into the debate on how the UK should roll out high speed broadband. Government to get UK Broadband up to Speed A ‘Broadband Summit’ of Ministers and industry leaders is to meet to discuss ways of bringing UK broadband connections up to speed amid fears that the UK’s current broadband speeds could ultimately have a negative effect on the economy.

CONSUMER watchdog Which? has called for an investigation into UK broadband after a survey revealed that actual broadband speeds fall way short of the advertised figures.

The survey, which looked at 300 customers' supposedly 8Mb connections revealed that the average speed customers were getting was just 2.7Mbps.

Which is now calling on regulator Ofcom and Trading Standards to investigate UK broadband.

They say that the lowest speed achieved in the trials was just 0.09Mbps - just a bit faster than dial-up - and the highest speed was only 6.7Mbps.

However a survey accompanying the speed tests revealed that only 10% of users actually believed that they would reach the top speeds of their package.

In the past year, almost all internet service providers (ISPs) have started offering an "8Mb" package.

A recent Advertising Standards Authority ruling prohibits companies from specifically promising maximum speeds and requires them to bill the products as 'Up to 8Mb' instead.

However the ruling stated that they were only permitted to do this if customers were likely to reach close to those speeds.

Jeff Stephens, Broadband Editor at ChooseISP said: "The Which? survey has opened a real can of worms in terms of broadband products will be advertised. Clearly, if the average speed customers are getting is almost 4 times less than the advertised speed, even the caveat of 'Up to 8Mb' falls short of the law."

"It will be interesting to see how the broadband companies react to this. I suspect that until they are challenged, they'll continue to promise speeds that cannot reasonably be reached," he added.

Factors affecting broadband speed include how close you are to the telephone exchange, how many people are being served by your exchange, the length and guage of the cabling from the exchange to your house as well as any electromagentic 'noise' from other appliances in your home.

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