Consumers still cheated by slow broadband speeds

Broadband consumers are still being cheated by slow broadband speeds – on average receiving only 46 percent of the tariff speed they are paying for.

New Ofcom research reveals a dramatic deterioration for consumers, down from 58 percent last year. These shocking results show that the majority of consumers are being regularly short-changed by their broadband companies for a service now considered “as essential as a utility”. The Government consumer watchdog, Consumer Focus, criticized broadband providers for selling “a Ferrari-style service but providing push bike speeds”. Head of digital communications, Robert Hammond, said the advertising authorities needed to “take a tough approach to broadband providers who promise speeds they don’t deliver.”

In April 2009 the average download speed was 4.1Mbps, 58 percent of the average advertised ‘up to’ speed of 7.1Mbps. Today the current average speed has improved to 5.2Mbps, but it is merely 46 percent of today’s average advertised speed with is ‘up to’ 11.5Mbps. Three times as many customers now pay for premium, higher speed tariffs compared with last year, so this is a rapidly escalating consumer issue.

Ed Richards, the chief executive of Ofcom, also condemned broadband providers for advertising “up to” speeds, when in fact no customers could actually receive that level of service. “Our view is that speeds should only be advertised if they are achievable by at least some customers”, said Mr Richards. Ofcom aims to introduce a “Typical Speed Range”, equivalent to miles per gallon used by the car industry, to make it clearer to consumers what speed they are likely to receive.

The Government has committed to have “the best broadband network in Europe” by the end of this parliament. However, the target date for a universal broadband service of 2 Mbps has been delayed until 2015, three years later than the original 2012 deadline.

The worst offenders were some tariffs offered by Orange and BT broadband, where customers routinely received less than one third of the speeds they were paying for at peak times. Virgin came out on top, being the only company which regularly delivered more than 60 per cent of the advertised headline speeds.

Surprisingly, the majority of broadband customers fail to test the speed of service they are receiving. A quick search on Google will present many options for testing your broadband speed. A reliable method is to use BBC’s iPlayer diagnostic service.