Average Speed of UK Broadband : 3.6mb

Ofcom have released a report revealing that the average UK broadband speed is 3.6mb, despite more than 60% of subscribers having "8mb" packages.

Quote:

The finding comes from one of the most sophisticated and thorough research programmes undertaken into the real broadband speeds experienced by UK consumers. Over a 30 day period approximately 7,000 tests were run through monitoring units connected to around 1,500 homes’ broadband routers, resulting in over 10 million separate tests of a range of suppliers’ services. UK consumers receive an average broadband speed of 3.6MB per second, despite over 60% of UK broadband consumers subscribing to packages advertising speeds of 'up to 8MB per second', according to research conducted by Ofcom. The report revealed that the average speed consumers receive is 45% of the advertised headline speed. One in five subscribers to the "up to 8MB per second" package was found to receive an average speed of less than 2MB per second. This compares with an average maximum possible speed of 4.3MB per second across the UK.

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/news/2009/01/nr_20090108

Reply from dibsmft on Jan 12, 2009 - 01:02 PM

I suspect that this problem is common in other countries as well. My ISP advertises my highspeed thus:

As low as 29.95 / mth

* Speeds up to 1.5 Mbps
* Unlimited always on High-Speed
* Access to Hotspots included
ADSL service down copper.

#1 The $29.95 is a intro special. The real price is > $40 currently (with contract)
#2 The speed I get is
DOWN 1285 kbps
UP 525 kbps
and it is quite reliable at that speed.
Not too bad but it is a long time since I got anything higher.
Probably not since "TV over the internet was added" (which I don't have).
If advertised as up to 1200 kbps there would be no problem. Why not be honest?
I gather that the situation is worse if you have the "up to higher speeds"

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