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July 28, 2011

Average broadband speeds increase by 10%

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:

ofcom average broadband speeds may2011 Average broadband speeds increase by 10%

 

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- Filed under: Broadband Speeds,News
- Tags: Broadband speed, broadband speed test, broadband speeds increasing, Ofcom broadband speeds —
Author: Mark @ 2:17 pm

July 29, 2010

Average broadband speeds rise according to Ofcom

The speed of fixed line broadband has seen an increase of over 25 per cent in the last year in broadband speed test done by Ofcom.

After Ofcom conducted it’s own broadband speed test research in partnership with the broadband site SamKnows the results showed that broadband speeds on average were raised from 4.1Mb to 5.2Mb.

This speed increase comes as broadband providers continue to try and offer customers faster and faster broadband speeds, a statistic which is proved with the fact that in April 2009 just 8% of broadband users fixed line connections were  advertised as above “up to” 10Mb, with that figure now raised to 24% on services offering above “up to” this speed.

With these increasing advertised headline speeds comes the fact that although on average broadband speeds have increased there is a growing gap between what users are advertised as their “up to” speed and what they are actually receiving.
In April 2009 the average advertised “up to” speed was 7.1Mb with the actual average broadband speed customers received being 4.1Mb which meant that users were receiving 58% of the advertised speed.

However, in May 2010 the average advertised broadband “up to” speed was 11.5Mb and the actual broadband speed customers received ion average was 5.2Mb which is just 45% of the advertised speed.

Unsurprisingly was the fact that Virgin Medias fibre broadband provided the fastest broadband, with the 10Mb and 20Mb which provided download speed around twice as fast as broadband packages offering similar headline speeds.
The fastest broadband speed was found to be on Virgin Medias 50Mb fibre broadband service which offered an average broadband download speed of 36Mb when done on a single thread test (when just 1 file is downloaded) and about 46Mb when a multi-thread test (when three files are downloaded at the same time which is more in line with how heavy broadband users use the Internet) was performed.

Ofcom average broadband speeds May 2010

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- Filed under: Broadband Speeds,Home Broadband,News
- Tags: Average broadband speeds, broadband speed test, Ofcom, Ofcom broadband speeds —
Author: Tony @ 11:00 am

April 30, 2010

Ofcom’s findings of broadband speed estimates from ISPs

Ofcom performed some mystery shopping tests with the various UK broadband providers to check how many were following the “Broadband Speeds Voluntary Code of Practice” (COPBB), this is where customers are given a broadband speed estimate at the point of sale amongst other things.

For telephone calls, an average of just 43% were given the estimated broadband speed when signing up to a broadband provider over the telephone without having to ask for it.
O2 broadband led the way with 54% given this broadband speed without needing prompting, BT were at the opposite end of the sale in last position with just 28% of calls being given this information without needing to ask for it.
Customers who requested the estimated broadband speed they would receive changed who lead the way, with Plusnet providing overall 93% of lines with their estimated speeds through either voluntarily or requested broadband speeds.

The broadband providers who were included in the results were done so only when there was enough data to give an accurate conclusions and these included: Plusnet, Talk Talk, BT, Orange, O2, Sky and Virgin Media.

For those mystery shoppers who went online to do their research overall it found that 66% were given a broadband speed that was not the headline speed and 21% not able to get a broadband speed online from the broadband providers website.
Virgin Media came out worst in this test finding that they just gave their headline speed to 35% of website users and just 34% given a single figure and 30% not given any speed at all!

The Voluntary code is designed to try and make it clearer for new broadband subscribers what broadband speed that they are likely to receive when signing up to a broadband provider instead of just seeing the advertised headline speed which most users will not receive (unless they live pretty much next to the local telephone exchange).

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- Filed under: Broadband Speeds,Home Broadband
- Tags: Broadband Speeds Voluntary Code of Practice, COPBB, Ofcom, Ofcom broadband speeds —
Author: Mark @ 10:47 am

March 23, 2010

Ofcom to call on BT to open up fibre access to rivals to speed up super-fast broadband roll-out

Ofcom is after faster roll-out of high speed next generation fibre broadband to the UK and are looking at making BT open up access to their network and also to their underground ducts and telephone poles for other rival fibre providers to install their own fibre networks.

ofcom Ofcom to call on BT to open up fibre access to rivals to speed up super fast broadband roll outIn return for allowing rival broadband providers such as Talk-Talk and Sky access to BT’s fibre lines BT would be able to set their own prices that they would charge for access so that they are able to make a fair return on their investment.
It is a similar way that Local Loop Unbundling has happened with the copper networks that BT already have, which allows rival providers in to basically take control of the line themselves.
Ofcom want competitors to have a virtual link to the new fibre that BT has installed which they are calling “Virtual Unbundling”.

Ofcom did surveys June 2008 and through 2009 of BT’s duct network and found that up to 50% of the ducts had spare room in them that would allow more ducts to be installed.

Ed Richards, the Chief Executive of Ofcom said:

“Super-fast broadband is starting to be a reality in the UK, with very significant advances in recent months in the speeds some providers are offering.

Ofcom’s proposed regulations provide a framework for continued investment, to deliver further roll-out, competition and innovation for consumers.”

We often hear of “Super-fast broadband” but quite often there is no yard-stick as such for us to say what this equates to, Ofcom have made a bit of a clarification of how they rank it in that Super-fast broadband uses fibre optic cable and speeds that are up to 10 times as fast as today’s levels. Working on today’s levels the majority of people are on up to 8Mb broadband services with the average broadband speed that is received being around the 4Mb mark (there have been various broadband speed test surveys done) so this would take the super-fast broadband speed to 40Mb if this is what Ofcom are working on. BT are currently installing their fibre network and are aiming to offer 40Mb broadband to 10 million home sin the UK by 2012.

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- Filed under: Fibre broadband
- Tags: BT fibre broadband, BT to open up access to ducts and telephone poles, BT Wholesale fibre broadband, Ofcom broadband speeds —
Author: Mark @ 12:47 pm

February 26, 2010

Ofcom to start more broadband speed research

New studies are to be undertook by Ofcom and the SamKnows website into the broadband speeds we receive.

ofcom Ofcom to start more broadband speed researchThe research follows up successful broadband speed testing done last year between Ofcom and SamKnows and is designed to give a more accurate picture of our actual broadband connections and speeds and not just the advertised “up to” speeds that we all see.
Quite often there is a big difference between the advertised “up to” speed that broadband providers advertise and the actual broadband speed received by the consumer.
Volunteers are currently being recruited to take part in the study and if selected then they will be provided with a White Box that will be then used to monitor the web traffic for specific broadband providers.

With broadband in the UK rapidly changing and getting faster the information gathered will be interesting to see for those who are signed up to the next generation fibre broadband deals and those on the BT 21CN network.
The BT C1CN network is due to offer ADSL2+ technology to around 75% of UK homes by Spring 2011 which is able to deliver theoretical maximum broadband speeds of 24Mb.
We also have the huge investment in fibre optic networks currently taking place, with BT rolling out their own fibre broadband network which will offer broadband speed up to 40Mb, Virgin Media already have a 50Mb broadband package and announced yesterday that by the end of the year that they will be starting to roll out Virgin Media 100Mb broadband via their new DOCSIS 3 network.

The last broadband testing that was funded by Ofcom to be done via the “White Box” in 2009 found that the average broadband speed was 4.1Mb which was the equivalent of 57% of the advertised headline speed.

CEO of SamKnows, Alex Salter said:

“What started out as a project to monitor and report on the UK’s broadband connectivity in general, it instead highlighted that a clear discrepancy exists between what the ISPs are saying and what the end consumer is actually receiving.

What we’re looking to measure in the forthcoming project is how this ISP performance will improve as consumers switch to services which are being advertised as significantly faster.”

It is anticipated that the broadband speeds of users will increase throughout the year as new technologies become rolled out and made available to more people and as such we would expect the average broadband speed we are receiving to also rise in line with this.

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- Filed under: Home Broadband
- Tags: Broadband speed, broadband speed test, Ofcom broadband speeds, SamKnows broadband speed monitoring —
Author: Ruth @ 11:48 am


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