The results of PC Advisor's annual Home Broadband Survey and the winners of this year's Best Broadband awards – as judged by you.
PC Advisor Home Broadband Survey 2011
Another year has drawn to a close and, yet again, it was a 12-month period that promised a lot and didn’t always seem to deliver. At the start of 2010, we were told that the worst of the economic downturn was behind us, a whole new era of government would inject new ideas, and BT Infinity would deliver 21st-century broadband to most of the UK. Meanwhile, those previously stuck in the broadband slow-lane would be given a connectivity boost.
See also: How to get 100Mb broadband
With austerity measures hitting the headlines, and the coalition government backtracking on plans to fund the gap between broadband haves and have-nots, it would be easy to summarise 2010 as a technological write-off.
In many ways, it’s been anything but. BT Infinity installations for fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) broadband were about to hit the accessible-to-four-million-homes landmark by the time we were tuning up for ‘Auld Lang Syne’. The telecoms giant was also preparing to wire up the have-nots of Cornwall with a mixture of FTTC and fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband in early 2011 (for more information, see tinyurl.com/btcornwall).
BT’s Race To Infinity project came to a close at the end of 2010 – we soon expect to be able to announce which communities successfully made a case for their exchanges to be upgraded to fibre-optic broadband.
And while the planned upgrades to the basic broadband infrastructure apparently stalled for lack of government commitment to the unpopular 50p-per-month broadband tax, it’s still claiming to have earmarked £830m to the project.
Virgin Media, too, continued to investigate how to get fast broadband to rural locations, famously using telegraph poles to carry its cables to parts of Oxfordshire.
For most of us, though, it was a matter of making the best of existing broadband connections. Promised exchange upgrades to local loop unbundling (LLU) have taken longer to effect than was originally predicted. Many readers commented in our Broadband Survey about overdue upgrades; several said that more than a year after their service provider promised it, a speed hike was only now looking likely.
Even so, the results of this year’s annual PC Advisor Home Broadband Survey are largely positive, with thousands of readers expounding the delights of being able to surf the web smoothly and at will, without page-load delays and connection interruptions. Almost all your shopping and associated research seems to be conducted online these days, while online gaming, web-based learning and internet radio are commonplace.
As well as keeping in touch by email, on Facebook, via instant messaging and by chatting over webcams, many survey respondents said BBC iPlayer, YouTube uploads and music-streaming sites are also keeping you entertained. No wonder bandwidth and unlimited monthly downloads have become such a prized commodity. Considering the aspects of your current ISP you’d change, fast, unlimited downloads with no cut-offs (ideally with no traffic shaping) were a common wish.
Here, we look at what else this year’s PC Advisor Home Broadband Survey has revealed, and the conclusions we can reach about ISPs and the services they provide.
Best buy broadband: The customer is always right
After years of decrying ISPs for promising more than they could deliver on the speed front, customers have finally got some muscle in the form of Ofcom. It’s backing a voluntary code of practice that requires ISPs to state realistic connection speeds, to which they can then be held accountable.
These more accurate estimates are intended to give broadband customers greater transparency over what they are buying, and to improve the reputation of the ISPs. An ‘access line speed’ must be given to a potential customer enquiring about a new subscription. This figure must be provided before a migration authorisation code (MAC) is handed over to allow the transfer from one ISP to another.
Ideally, it should be offered at the start of negotiations.
Virgin Media has sought to make itself a hero here, proclaiming its transparency over connection speeds – which is somewhat easier if, like Virgin, you own the infrastructure rather than lease it, and you have an uncontended web service. ADSL broadband shares its bandwidth among multiple users, with resulting peaks and troughs at different times of the day and days of the week.
NEXT: the need for speed >>
Comments
Clarky67 said: I have up to 30mbwith virgin and showing 162 the problem i have is the planks diggin up the road every two minutes and cutting the service for a few day yiu would think Virgin would have a go at them but know just palm us off with constant excuses from their cust care
Gary Gemmell said: Tiscali used to be good back in the old days shameTalktalk are a lot better than that would suggest having a good tech support team and have upgraded their services a lot over the years
Gary Gemmell said: Tiscali used to be good back in the old days shameTalktalk are a lot better than that would suggest having a good tech support team and have upgraded their services a lot over the years
IanC said: Er What Subject The phone survey or the ISP
Brian said: Im on Virgin 20Mb and like Phil and Chris I can easily get 18Mb download In about 6 years I have only had one problem which was sorted out by an engineer next morning before 10am
Chris Dale said: Im lucky enough to be in a cabled area and Virgin Media are awesome 185 Mbps average on their 20Mb service but now Ive upgraded to their 50Mb offering Im getting 495Mbps consistently and for only 5 a month extra including HDTV channels How can you complain Their customer service and technical support are way better than previously so theyve improved all round in my experience with them
Phil Hart said: I used to be with the rubbish Tiscali which was supposed to be up to 8mb but was getting around 15mb It was also so unreliable no connection for days on end I wouldnt go near Talk Talk as they took over Tiscali For the last 2 years Ive been with Virgin and if there is a problem they even send out an engineer to sort it out I have only had a problem once Their tech support is UK based and is free is you from a Virgin phone lineI am on the up to 20mb and phone bundle I usually get around 185 mb the slowest ever had with them has been 17mb
John Milman said: I am amazed that TalkTalk receives one star I am on an unbundled exchange despite having been promised one by a TalkTalk rep who visited me 3 yrs ago but service has become so degraded that only in the morning do I occasionally get near 2MB but never over but the evening is below below - often well below - 1MB Humppph
roy said: no way