Shropshire fights against a lottery for broadband speeds

Signing up for broadband services is being found to be a postcode lottery for many users in the Shropshire region with users who pay the same price as each other for broadband services getting huge differences in connection speeds.

Broadband users in Shropshire are currently paying anything from £5 to £50 for the service but are getting speeds that can be anything from 2Mbps up to 50Mbps and can pick up contract lengths that ranging from 1 month up to 18 months according to a recent investigation carried out by a local online news site.

It was found that the quality of service offered throughout Shropshire compared to how much was paid for the service varied a huge amount, although most users advised that high-speed wireless broadband connections were something the could not live without.

The investigation also found that with over 50 packages on offer, Telford was the best are of customer choice.

Although it was found that the region offered a large number of 24Mbps broadband packages, the 20Mbps O2 broadband premium with a free wireless router, which cost £9.79 a month, was found to be the most popular package taken out.

An 8Mbps package from TalkTalk which cost £6.49 per month was found to be the biggest seller in the Shrewsbury area with the combination of fast connection and low cost being preferred by many of the areas businesses. With prices ranging from £9.95 up to £29.95, eclipse Internet was found to be the fastest provider with connection speeds of up to 24Mbps.

Broadband speeds of anything from 8Mbps to 24Mbps are available in the Ludlow area and prices range from £4.95 up to £49.95, depending on the promotional discounts that are offered at the time, number of free calls and the length of the contract being taken out.

The main concern of many of the Shropshire residents, however, is the connection speeds they are getting compared to how much they are spending on their service and the speed they should be getting. A recent Ofcom survey found that one out of every five users received speeds of less than 2Mbps and one in ten users received connection speeds of 6Mbps or more from their 8Mbps connection.

Source – ShropshireStar