Further broadband speed test research to be conducted for Ofcom

It has been revealed that the UK’s financial regulator Ofcom has decided to conduct further research into the broadband speeds being achieved by consumers with fixed line broadband, and is now looking for volunteers for the testing.

The issue over broadband speeds has caused a lot of controversy, and many consumers, campaigners, and even the UK’s communications regulator Ofcom, have expressed concern that the headline speeds that Internet service providers advertise for fixed line services are often nowhere near the actual speed that the consumer receives even though the consumer is paying for the advertised speed. ISPs get around this by advertising their speeds as ‘up to’ speeds, but there is often a big gap between what the maximum advertised speed is and what the consumer actually receives in terms of speed.

It has now been revealed that Ofcom has decided to conduct further research into fixed line broadband speeds, and in order to do this has commissioned the SamKnows website. The site is now looking for volunteers who would be able to track speeds through the use of a white box that has been developed to sit in the volunteer’s home.

The Ofcom Broadband Speeds 2009 report was published around six months ago, and the new research is commissioned to continue until 2012. It is thought that consumers will see changes in their broadband speeds over this period as improved technology gives them access to greater speeds from their Internet service providers.

An official from SamKnows stated: “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.”

Source – Samknows