Review: 42.3% of UK broadband connections below 2Mbit

[esh]

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/239187/revealed-the-shocking-state-of-british-broadband.html


The deplorable speed of British broadband connections has been revealed in the the latest figures from the Office of National Statistics, which show that 42.3% of broadband connections are slower than 2Mb/sec.

As far back as last year, telecoms regulator Ofcom was claiming "the average headline speed has doubled in a year to reach 4.6Mb/sec".

However, the ONS figures suggest that average is being heavily weighted by a small proportion of truly high-speed connections, such as the 24Mb/sec ADSL2+ broadband offered by ISPs with Local Loop Unbundled services.

More worryingly, the ONS statistics are based on the connection's headline speed, not actual throughput. That means that many more British broadband connections could well dip below the 2Mb/sec barrier when it comes to actual speeds.

A separate report issued yesterday by Ofcom revealed that the majority of broadband users had no idea about the speed of their connection.


Well I know my IDNET line is sitting pretty at rates between 760 and 835KB/s, which qualifies as 8Mbit in my eyes. Here in Warwick though, on my non-IDNET line? Some days it is synched at less than 0.5Mbit.

That said it wasn't 8 years ago when 0.5Mbit seemed like a dream. Trouble is, if your line synchs at 0.5Mbit these days, it usually means it's as stable as a tapdancer in a ballbearing factory.

[Rik]

it's as stable as a tapdancer in a ballbearing factory.

Nice image, Esh.

It is a worrying report, isn't it, and shows how unreliable Ofcom's pronouncements are.

[Ray]

This is mine currently here (sorry, Rik don't mean to upset you with these figures.  )

[Rik]

It's OK, Ray, my upstream speed is 382k.

[Ray]

It's OK, Ray, my upstream speed is 382k.

I shall complain then, Rik, mine never gets above 374k. 

[Rik]

 

[john]

I've just tried it at work and got the following :

Download speed 16391 kps

Upload speed 15833 kps

I'm suprised the speedtest worked at work as they don't usually get past the proxy server. The above results were at lunchtime too when it's usually a lot busier.


I'll try it at home tonight if I remember.

[Rik]

Shaddup.

[john]

Shaddup.

You ask for the impossible Rik 

Seriously though if Ofcom takes into account company broadband connections like the figures I quoted then their average figure is going to be higher than that for domestic connections.

[Rik]

You can bet they do, John, it makes them look better.

[john]

If it makes you feel better my speeds at home are :

Download : 3512 kbps

Upload : 211 kbps

[Rik]

Why the low upload, John?

[Glenn]

Download: 2496
Upload: 448

For me, but my nm is at 12db and has been for months

[Rik]

Is that sync or throughput, Glenn.

I had a weird experience on Sunday, when the router lost the connection after two months of stability. When it re-connected, it did so with a 224k u/s sync. A re-boot got that back to 448k, but with a 7db NM instead of 21db. Monday morning, I re-booted again, and all was back to normal.

[Glenn]

Thats the sync, BT won't let my line do speedtests, it keeps giving errors on the download

[john]

Why the low upload, John?

I don't know Rik but speedtesters give different results every time you use them.




Just tried it again four times within a couple of minutes and it said :

download kps upload 244 kps

1)    4141         244
2)    3607         246
3)    4207         359
4)    4340         234

[Rik]

Thats the sync, BT won't let my line do speedtests, it keeps giving errors on the download

BT does that to stop us finding out the truth.  

[Rik]

I don't know Rik but speedtesters give different results every time you use them.




Just tried it again four times within a couple of minutes and it said :

download kps upload 244 kps

1)    4141         244
2)    3607         246
3)    4207         359
4)    4340         234

Have you tried http://www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk/ ?

I find it's reasonably accurate on upload, slightly optimistic on download.

[john]

That is the one I tried Rik that gave me the figures I quoted.

[Rik]

Odd. How about the ThinkBroadband tester?

[Glenn]

http://www.speedtest.bbmax.co.uk/results.php?t=1227720858&v=5649606

1989kbs down
377kbs up

[Rik]

Looks about right for the sync, Glenn, maybe slightly slow, but that could be a profile issue.

[john]

Odd. How about the ThinkBroadband tester?

Results with the thinkbroadband tester are :

Speed down kbps   Speed up kbps
1) 4078.98               376.07
2) 3546.35               378.21

The results for both testers may be meaningless because I've just checked if my daughters were logged on at the same time and at least one of them is !!!

[Rik]

Time to take control of the router, John.

[Colin Burns]

This is mine currently here (sorry, Rik don't mean to upset you with these figures.  )

ill rock the boat

Download Speed: 7073 kbps (884.1 KB/sec )   Upload Speed: 368 kbps (46 KB/sec )