November 16, 2011
Broadband speeds across the UK drop by as much as 35% on average during the “broadband rush hour” with some towns noticing a huge 69% difference in the broadband speeds they receive between peak and off-peak hours.
 Anyone wanting to get the fastest use out of their broadband are best to do so between the hours of 2am-3am in the morning that are found to be the times when you are likely to receive your fastest broadband connection, obviously as most people are in bed asleep at this time that makes sense with the fastest UK average broadband speed at around 9.6Mb during this time.
The contrast is when the “information super highway” is at it’s rush hour between 7pm and 9pm in the evening when there are the most people using the internet at home and the average UK broadband speed drops to around 6.2Mb.
The study was done by the price comparison website uSwitch.com with the data of more than 2 million broadband speed tests analysed. Only Post Code areas that had more than 100 speed tests with included in the results and included both standard ADSL broadband connections and also fibre broadband connections.
The Technology expert at uSwitch, Ernest Doku, said:
“It really is surprising just how much broadband speeds fluctuate at different times of the day, with drop-offs of almost 70% in some areas of the UK. Not many internet users enjoy the maximum headline broadband speeds offered by providers, and certainly not during the working week.
This research may help to shed some light on why many bewildered consumers, who believe they?ve signed up to a certain broadband speed, never actually feel like their connection is fast enough. The problem of slower broadband speeds has been exacerbated by changes in the way people use the internet, with far more people downloading music and watching TV programmes online, inevitably putting more strain on the network.“
Evesham in Worcestershire was the area that topped the charts for the widest variation in broadband speeds, with the morning speed between 7-9am averaging 15.5Mb and the evening speed between 7-9pm down to just 4.9Mb.
More people streaming music and live TV online in the evening are huge factors for the slowing down of broadband connections in the evening, as faster more reliable broadband speeds have been made available there has also seen an increasing use and demand for more bandwidth hungry applications such as for the BBC iPlayer to give consumers what they want to watch on demand.
Looking to the future it is clear that the fibre broadband deployment across the UK is vital in making sure that consumers will continue to be able to use the internet at peak hours without interruption.
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September 22, 2011
uSwitch yesterday published what they believed are the 50 slowest broadband streets in the UK but today BT has countered this by saying that the results are based on false data.
In uSwitches report they said that the street of Mount Pleasant in the Suffolk town of Halesworth had the slowest broadband of any street in the whole country with an average broadband speed of 0.128Mb. However, BT have countered this claim by saying that their data indicates that the street has speeds of 7.5Mb and that Mount Pleasant was very close to the local telephone exchange meaning it very unlikely that it would get such slow broadband speeds, plus the street has access to fibre broadband too!
The top 2 streets for the slowest broadband on the list are both actually connected up to fibre broadband.
A BT spokesperson said:
“It appears that the data in this survey is out of date. Fibre broadband is now available for a number of the streets identified.
We wouldn’t disagree with uSwitch that there are a number of slow spots in the UK, and that needs addressing, but it would seem they haven’t managed to identify them correctly here.”
BT said that 7 of the 50 streets identified in the list have access to fibre broadband.
However, just because they have access to fibre broadband does not mean that residents on the streets are signed up to it and that the results in uSwitch’s report are based on actual broadband speed tests that are carried out by consumers. A minimum of 10 speed tests per post code had to have been done before they were considered to be included in the report.
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September 9, 2011
The average broadband speed in the UK for August was 8.06Mb with average upload speeds at 1.21Mb according to the broadband speed test results from the broadband.co.uk website.
Unsurprisingly heading the field is Virgin Media with their cable broadband network which provided and average broadband speed of over double the national average at 16.97Mb, they also showed the highest upload speeds too, again over double the national average at 2.48Mb.
Taking second place was Eclipse who posted an average broadband speed of 7.15Mb, just ahead of BT who’s average was 6.99Mb.
With Virgin Media & BT broadband both battling fiercely to sign up as many customers to their fibre broadband networks it will be pleasing for Virgin Media to see that currently their average broadband speed is almost 10Mb faster than that BT customers receive.
The speed test study looks at the largest UK broadband providers to work out what their average broadband speed test is. The following is the list of average broadband speed test results.
Virgin Media: 16.97Mb
Eclipse Internet: 7.15Mb
BT Broadband: 6.99Mb
Be & O2 Broadband*: 5.57Mb
Plusnet: 4.99Mb
TalkTalk: 4.93Mb
Sky Broadband: 4.76Mb
Orange Broadband: 3.78Mb
AOL Broadband: 3.08Mb
* Be & O2 use the same network as Be are owned by O2.
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August 22, 2011
The UK’s slowest broadband towns have been listed after broadband speed tests across the country were done by uSwitch.com
The Kent town of Cranbrook managed to set an average broadband download speed of just 1.32Mb which is around 5 times slower than the national average which is 7.5Mb.
Out of the top 20 (or should than be bottom 20) for slowest broadband speeds the counties of Kent & Sussex were home to 6 of the slowest broadband towns in the survey, with all of them having broadband speeds below 2Mb.
The results were gathered from people running broadband speeds tests and as such pr0bably mean there are other places with slower broadband, but from the 400,000 speed tests that were performed between May & July this year these were the findings.
The second slowest was Tregaron in Wales followed by Lavant which is near to Chichester.
These slow broadband speeds are on the UK governments agenda to get sorted, in Western Europe the UK has one of the slowest internet connections, way behind the average in France of 18Mb and Finland with 22Mb. The UK government want to have the fastest European broadband network by 2015, along with the £2.5bn investment in their fibre network being done by BT, the government have announced a £530m pot to help fund broadband out to rural areas and a further £300m in the future.
We can only look longingly at the average broadband speeds that South Korea and Japan offer which are 46Mb and 61Mb respectivly.
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July 28, 2011
Broadband speeds are still on the rise according to research by Ofcom. In the last 6 months they have found that the average broadband speed has increased by 10%.
In November/December the average broadband speed they found was 6.2Mb and in the latest broadband speed test results they show the average has crept up to 6.8Mb by May 2011.
The study and results also showed that along with the broadband speeds increasing the gap between the advertised broadband speed and actual broadband speeds people receive has also increased. Previously the average advertised speed back in Nov/Dec was 13.8Mb making the gap between advertised and actual 7.6Mb, howevere in May 2011 the average advertised broadband speed was 15Mb making a difference of 8.2Mb gap between advertised and actual average broadband speeds.
The study looked at 14 packages available form the 7 largest UK broadband providers who account for over 75% of UK residential broadband connections.
The Chief Executive of Ofcom, Ed Richards, said:
“The UK broadband market has transformed since Ofcom first published its research two and a half years ago.
By publishing this research, Ofcom has encouraged ISPs to invest in faster broadband networks; we are now seeing consumers increasingly move to higher rated services and enjoying genuinely faster speeds.
Consumers also have access to better broadband information, allowing them to decide which provider to use based on actual speeds they can achieve at home.
However, the research is still telling us that some consumers are not receiving anywhere near the speeds that are being advertised by some ISPs. Ofcom continues to urge the CAP and BCAP committees to make changes to their advertising guidance so that consumers are able to make more informed decisions based on the adverts they see.”
The differences between different ISPs average broadband speeds can be viewed below:
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March 3, 2011
The average broadband download speed is less than half of the “up to” speeds that are advertised by some broadband providers.
Ofcom were submitting their findings to the Committee for Advertising Practice (CAP) and the Broadcast Committee for Advertising Practice (BCAP) over the advertising of broadband speeds investigation that is being undertaken to try and make it clearer to consumers what broadband speeds they are likely to receive when signing up to an broadband package.
Ofcoms findings were mainly attached to broadband that is delivered via a phone line as this form of receiving broadband tends not to bring the potential of the advertised “up to” speeds. It was found that in November/December 2010 the average broadband speed was 6.2Mb which is less than half of the advertised broadband speed of 13.8Mb.
The study looked not only at copper based ADSL services but also fibre and cable services too. The copper based ADSL services are the ones which bring the biggest difference between advertised and actual broadband speeds. The average download speed for an advertised “up to” 20/24Mb ADSL broadband service which uses copper cable to deliver the broadband was just 6.2Mb, this is just 29sp% of the advertised up to speed. “Up to” 8Mb ADSL services produced an average broadband speed of 3.4Mb which is just 42% of the advertised “up to “speed.
A tiny 3% of customers on an “up to” 20/24Mb advertised broadband package received over 16Mb!
BT’s Fibre To The Cabinet service (BT Infinity) which uses fibre optic cable to the street side cabinet and then standard copper telephone lines to the customers house produced much closer speeds between the advertised “up to” and the actual speeds. BT advertises it’s BT Infinity service at “up to” 40Mb, the results of the broadband speed tests performed produced average broadband speeds of 31.1Mb which is 78% of the advertised speed.
Finally Cable services from Virgin Media which use fibre optic cable to the street side cabinet and then coaxial cable to the premises have advertised “up to” speeds of 50Mb broadband and the average download speed received was 46Mb and on average delivered between 90-96% of the advertised speeds.
Ofcom are suggesting that a Typical Speed Range (TSR) that is actually achievable to at least half of customers should be used when advertising broadband speeds.
Ofcom has produced a Typical Speed Range that it thinks broadband providers should use when advertising broadband speeds.
 What is positive to take from the results is that how much faster fibre broadband is and that it can bring much more stable and reliable broadband to customers.
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November 18, 2010
Virgin Media are launching it’s “Stop The Broadband Con” scheme that is aiming to change broadband providers advertising mis-leading “up to” broadband speeds.
 The reason Virgin are running this campaign will be because being a cable broadband provider they are the least affected by a big difference between their advertised broadband speeds and actual broadband speeds delivered to customers compared to standard DSL broadband providers.
The fundamental issues behind the campaign are valid and companies advertising broadband “up to” a certain speed yet in many instances delivering speeds less than half of this speed does make it very misleading to customers.
The fact that ultimately the campaign will be to benefit and promote Virgin Media as a broadband company who can deliver broadband speeds close to their advertised speeds means that the gesture and reasoning behind the campaign is hardly selfless but none the less, if it does help change the way that broadband providers advertise their services with misleading broadband speeds then ultimately it may work out good for the industry.
Virgin Medias executive director of broadband, Jon James, said:
“People are paying for superfast broadband but receiving a service stuck in the slow lane. Broadband providers need to stop advertising speeds that not a single customer can receive and we’re asking people to support our call for change by signing up to stopthebroadbandcon.org. Faster broadband means better broadband, whether you’re surfing the web, watching TV online or downloading music and UK consumers deserve superfast broadband they can trust, rather than having to rely on the fairytales and broken promises of current broadband advertising.“
The slight issue with the campaign is that Virgin Media still advertise their services as “up to” a certain speed, the stats suggest that on average they do deliver customers with around 90% of the advertised headline speed but again this by some would make their call for this campaign a bit flawed.
Stats from Ofcom found that in May 2010 that DSL broadband providers were delivering just 33% of the headline speed for advertised “up to” 20Mb or 24Mb services with a speed on average of just 6.5Mb.
The reason for this is that DSL providers use BT’s copper network to transfer data for broadband, the distance customers are form the local exchange and also the quality of the cable can affect the broadband speed hugely. Fibre optic providers such as Virgin Media do not receive as much loss in broadband speeds over these distances than those providers on DSL connections.
Richard Branson the founder of the Virgin Group, said:
“Staying connected is central to our lives and we all deserve broadband we can trust. I’m challenging all broadband providers to be honest with their customers and ask people to add their voice to the campaign by signing up to Stopthebroadbandcon.org.“
The easy way to check how fast your Internet connection is running at is to use our free broadband speed test tool, it will show you what your upload and download speed are running at.
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November 17, 2010
The slowest place for broadband in the UK is the villiage of Farningham in Kent with an average broadband speed of just 1.3Mb according to a recent broadband speed test study.
The research, done by broadband comparison site Top10.com over the last few months used data from over 100,000 broadband speed tests to draw up their list of top (or should that be bottom) 20 slowest broadband places in the UK. Only places that had at least 50 broadband speed tests performed over the 3 month period were used to be included in the analysis.
The most surprising place to be included on the list was the city of Worcester which came in in 20th position with an average broadband download speed of 2.01Mb. The fact that a city with a population of nearly 100,000 should have such slow broadband is a bit concerning as it is usually much more rural areas that are affected by slow broadband connections.
The top 20 list for slowest broadband places was as follows:
- Farningham, Kent – 1.3
- Duns, Borders, Scotland – 1.43
- Harbury, Warwickshire – 1.51
- Hethersett, Norfolk – 1.6
- Cockfield, County Durham – 1.63
- Brigg, Lincolnshire – 1.71
- Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, Wales – 1.73
- Stevenston, Ayrshire, Scotland – 1.76
- Holsworthy, Devon – 1.77
- Ballymena, County Antrim – 1.8
- Hungerford, Berkshire – 1.81
- Amersham, Buckinghamshire – 1.84
- Ancaster, Lincolnshire – 1.88
- Dunoon, Argyll, Scotland – 1.9
- Pentre, Rhondda, Wales – 1.9
- Southmoor, Oxfordshire – 1.91
- Banchory, Aberdeenshire, Scotland – 1.95
- Grantham, Lincolnshire – 1.97
- Worcester, Worcestershire – 2.01
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September 17, 2010
Yesterday carrier pigeons proved to be faster than a rural broadband connection for transferring a 300Mb video file.
The stunt was put on by business ISP, Timico, to show how slow rural broadband can be for many. The 10 pigeons had microSD cards attached to them containing a 5 minute video that was 200Mb in size and were set off from Beverley in Yorkshire and at the very same time that the same 300Mb file was started to upload to Youtube.
The pigeons destination was 120km away in Skegness which they managed to reach in just 75 minutes, however the farm’s broadband connection had only managed to upload 24% of the file.
The test is hardly scientific in any way and it’s not really possible to compare the 2 different methods of transferring the date properly but it was done to highlight the fact that in some rural areas broadband connections are still very slow and are in need of investment to offer them faster speeds. The farm in question where the upload some done to only has a broadband connection of between 100-200km.
Last year a similar stunt was done in South Africa where a carrier pigeon called Winston did a 96km distance in 2 hours while just 4% of a 4GB file had managed to be downloaded in the same period of time.
Internet users can run a broadband speed test to see how quick their Internet connection runs at.
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August 3, 2010
The UK has come in at 27th position for the Worlds fastest broadband speeds.
The disappointing position has seen the UK fall back 4 places from 23rd to 27th in the 201 countries that are speed tested, with the results published in Akamai’s “State Of The Internet” report that was released earlier this week. The results are for Quarter 1 of 2010.
The average of the broadband speed test results found that we on average a broadband speed of 3.8Mb, this is way behind the average of the leading countries, with South Korea averaging 12Mb broadband connections.
More than this, the list of top 100 cities based on average broadband speed didn’t see any UK cities listed, and there were only eight cities in Europe that made the list with Romania accounting for four of them. Japan were the clear leaders here with over half of the positions with an impressive 53 cities listed in the top 100.
The global average broadband speed was just 1.7Mb.
Last week we reported how Ofcom had done their own broadband speed test to find the average broadband speed in the UK of 5.2Mb so there is clearly some discrepancy between the two tests as to what our actual average broadband speed is.
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