Average UK broadband speed under 3 Mb
Broadband users all over the UK have been testing their speeds and as a result of the 18,558 tests carried out in January on broadband comparison site Broadband Expert, the average speed in the UK is a pitiful 2.95Mb.
The results varied enormously with the lowest download speed being 1.72Mb from Tiscali, through to the highest average of 6.07Mb with Be broadband. Download speed describes the rate at which a computer downloads information from the internet like emails, web pages, music and video. The higher download speeds of Be, who also provide the technology behind the O2 broadband service, is partially due to the ADSL2+ technology which allows much greater speeds to be achieved. Most providers currently provide their broadband connections through the more traditional ADSL technology.
“Despite ongoing pressure from Ofcom and various consumer groups broadband providers are still misleading the public over broadband speeds,” said William Harvey, Broadband-Expert.co.uk Technical Director.“Current advertising campaigns like the one for Tiscali broadband promise superfast broadband (download) speeds of up to 8Mb. Yet the average actual speed achieved by Tiscali customers was a pitiful lowly 1.72Mb. Now that is not superfast by any stretch of the imagination and is over 1Mb lower than the UK average.”
The average upload speed was clocked at 296Kbs or 0.296Mb. Upload speed is the rate that data is transferred from a computer to the internet and is very important for online gaming, uploading photos to sites like Facebook sending large email attachments, and other activities which transmit information back to the internet from a PC. Upload speeds varied greatly between providers too with Be broadband achieving the fastest average upload speeds of 850Kbs and Orange the slowest at 219Kbs. “Broadband providers can confuse consumers by stating maximum broadband speeds that are often only achieved by a very small percentage of subscribers”. “Providers should state the average download and upload speeds achieved by their broadband subscribers, this would give consumers a better idea of the sort of speeds they are likely to receive and would encourage providers to deliver better broadband products”.
Each month Broadband-Expert.co.uk stores all of the results from the tests and the results of the fastest speeds by providers vary enormously. The highest recorded speed in January was 23.15Mb from a Be broadband customer down to only 5.99Mb for the fastest Eclipse customer. “Our recent results, in terms of speed, show that the providers with ADSL2+ technology provide by far the highest speeds.”
Posted in Be Broadband, Broadband News, O2 Broadband, Orange Broadband, Tiscali Broadband
April 5th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
I am having a very similair problem but i think i have found out how they work. Now lets give the details of my ‘advertised connection’ I have the ‘unlimited 8mb tiscali package’ Basically meaning you can download as much as you like before peak time 6pm till 11pm, how ever if you download allot durin peak time they will start to restrict your internet speed. Now all of the statement is a lie, i shall state why, luckily i get some weekdays off as i am a college student who knows a fair bit about computers so some indian on the call centre cannot tell me garbage. Anyways back to the point i have found out that during weekdays early morning 1am till 5pm the internets is fine speed is 6meg to 7meg which is a download rate of (820kb’s) now i download demos off xbox live play games against gamers from around the world out of peak time but when 4pm (which isnt even peak) People start to come home from work and use the internet you start to notice the internet degrading and when peak time hits then BAM! im down to under half a meg (230kb) now i have followed there guide lines with the fair use policy But this is dreadfull it seems they restrict every user during peak time which is a rip off for people who work during the day and get home at 5pm. They come home to peak time speeds not allowing them to enjoy the internet payed for… But you may say noo its okay because theres the weekends, well that is not true.. ive conducted some internet speed tests on a variety of websites especially speedtest.net and it seems even off peak the speed of internet is less than half a meg. Its obvious to many of you aswell that when peak time comes tiscali somehow enables a bandwidth limiter to all of its users no matter how good they are with following the rules. I have given up arguing with them they just wont listen and they wouldnt give two ticks, i am just waiting for this contract to finish and then read reviews of ISP’s on the internet carefully and read the small print!
If you would like to talk about Internet Issues.
April 12th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
I’m amused by the speeds achieved in various tests. My own less than stellar results, measured over a 2 hour period, make me want to cry.
Down, 1.3; 0.28; 0.47
Up, 0.3; 0.15; 0.1
How do I get BT to replace/improve the present system of historical lines to our village?
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:42 am
Im with BT and both their customer service and website state that “I will receive 3MB”. Not you might, YOU WILL.
I have had no other problems with them but I am receiving 1.2MB whilst they do their “tests” after I phoned up.
They say that I might not get anything better, even though my neighbour is receiving 2.3MB as standard.
1.2MB for £24.99 a month.. Not on
May 25th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Recently upgraded from 2mb to 8mb and wondered why I saw little if any speed improvement. Then I started testing my actual speed and was shocked to see my average download speed is less than 2Mb! Whats the point of upgrading? Its such a con and all this “Fast 8MB Connection” guff is misleading us all! As for Toucan…. they seem to be the slowest of all and I’ll probably leave them soon
June 8th, 2008 at 10:11 am
Orange are perhaps the most revolting of company’s to deal with. The max speed in my area is 2mb apparently, but Orange increase it to that speed for a couple of days when I complain. Then, every time, they reduce it to a pathetic 250-500k a couple of days afterwards.
Orange are by far the worst company I’ve ever, ever had to deal with.
I’ll be switching to Be the second my contract runs out.
June 17th, 2008 at 11:26 am
I switched 4 companies, none of them lived up to what they advertise… I wonder if any does.