UK broadband users are paying for vastly exaggerated internet speeds, with an average 7 megabits per second (Mbps) compared to their providers’ promised 12Mbps – five megabits lost between the claim and the actual usage.
UK Broadband survey results
A Guardian online survey of 3,000 readers found most users paying for better broadband access than they actually receive.
The worst-performing ISPs were Sky and TalkTalk, where users reported a 60 percent shortfall between what these broadband providers advertised and what users actually experienced.
Sky subscribers bought into advertised broadband speed rates averaging 12Mbps but received a mere 4.8Mbps.
TalkTalk customers were promised an average 8Mbps speed, but reported just 5Mbps.
See also: Best home broadband deals
Virgin subscribers fared better but the gap between advertised and actual rates were still 41 percent apart – getting 17.7Mbps instead of the promised 30Mbps.
Much maligned former public telecoms provider BT came out on top of the satisfaction charts, with a sizeable but below-average shortfall of 27 percent on BT’s well-respected PlusNet service.
Ofcom defines “broadband” as 2Mbps or over, which is the minimum bandwidth needed for video services such as the BBC's iPlayer.
18 percent of Guardian survey respondents reported that their so-called broadband lines were under this measure.
Last week BT announced the passing of the 10 million Infinity broadband milestone, and also a long list of new UK exchanges that can handle the fast Internet access.
The 80Mbps fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) technology roll out is “months ahead of schedule” according to the telecoms giant.
Even faster 300Mbps fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) broadband is promised from spring 2013.
80Mbps BT broadband available for 10m in UK
BT also announced a long list of new fibre-broadband ready exchanges.
Comments
Yarapriest said: The internet service speeds packages that we are being sold in the UK are way beyond rubbish They are scandalous I live in a house with five other adults We are all Postgrad students and we all useneed the internet to get things done Without a decent connection everything at our house grinds to halt Now we pay for a 14Mbit line We get 2Mbits consistently throughout the dayweek and 3Mbits when were lucky Apparently our internet speeds crap because the signals weak because we live one mile away from our exchange ONE FRIGGING MILE Talk about living in the dark agesWe cannot download anything stream anything and we cannot use the internet for recreational purposes simply because our 2Mbit connection cannot cope When things get busy at our house we resort to using our mobile phone providers tethering service which is just as bad just to get things doneIve been to loads of sitesforumsarticles on the internet that are jam packed with complaints Thousands upon thousand of complaints from Brits over crap connection speeds capped usage throttling etc etc etc The internets moving forward for the rest of the world and we are being left behindI cant even understand how this level of crummyness can be acceptable in one of the richest countries in the world in the 21st century The outlook for the future is bleak Things arent going to get any better for us Brits any time soon
Johnyboy said: Hi Mike I have just resolved a problem with my broadband which was running at 46Mbps and suddenly went haywire dropping to around 16Mbps average and dropping out regularly The BT test on my line shows it at 32Mbps maxAn Openreach engineer was sent eventually who said my internal cabling configuration was wrong being parallel which he reconfigured to series He fitted a new box to the inlet cable and tested the connections within and to the exchange at 36 Mbps amp 39Mbps respectively He then brought in a transistor radio and searched for and found electronic rain caused by our 30 year old front door bell which when corrected brought our internal wiring up to 39Mbps also The cable to our broadband router point was incorrect and he told me which cable to install He was most helpful and his parting shot was to wait for a few weeks whilst my line settled downAfter all this and 4 weeks on I now get between 36Mbps amp 41Mbps somewhat less than before but with no more dropoutsThis is a Dark Art indeed
Paula said: Im with tescos I wasnt given a speed just that it would be faster and it is almost doubled the old speed of 1mps on Downloads which was plenty good enough for what I want to do BUT where I could Upload 15 mb before I can only scrape in 56kb now Useless when your hobby is photograph restores Tescos have told me there is nothing wrong with the router So its not only the Download speed to watch Keep an eye on what they are doing to your Uploads as well
John said: Where can the typical user find information regarding the filtersrouter channels to optimise their broadband speeds as you have suggested
Faisal said: Surely the infrastructure is all bt Dont all these others compnays buy it from bt the avg speed gap should be the same Also virgin provide adsl BT line or cable btoadband would have been more informative so compare on different infrastructure
Mike said: As a telecom engineer visiting homes regularly to improve broadband speeds I can say that the main problem is attenuation that is the distance from the customer and the servers and the quality of the cable This is the responsibility of BT Openreach and quite frankly in many cases the problem is exasperated by underinvestment in the copper cable network and exchange boxes Openreach are reluctant to improve the cable as they want customers to buy the new infinity fiber optic service I also suspect that Openreach engineers have an agenda when it comes to competitors and favor BT customers but I cannot prove it of cause A second issue and also very important is that a number of users are unaware of how to set up their systems correctly especially with regard to filters and router channels and this can lead to reduced speeds In most case I can improve speeds between 30 and 500 just by correct configuration I do however think that the companies should explain clearly to the customer the expected speed before the service is connected and if necessary offer an installation service rather than expect the customer to set up the system themselves
Dave said: yes sky are crap