Broadband speeds not up to what’s advertised

A report from Ofcom today reveals that consumers are not getting the broadband speeds that ISPs are advertising.

The majority of users are on packages which offer broadband speeds up to 8Mbit/s, but many actually get speeds of less than half this.

Looking at the top providers offering ‘up to’ 8Mbit/s packages and the actual average speed obtained:

• AOL – 3.3 to 3.9 Mbit/s
• BT – 3.8 to 4.2 Mbit/s
• O2 – 4.1 to 5.1 Mbit/s
• Orange – 3.8 to 4.5 Mbit/s
• Plusnet – 3.8 to 4.9Mbit/s
• Sky – 4.0 to 4.7 Mbit/s
• Talk Talk – 3.8 to 4.6 Mbit/s
• Tiscali – 3.2 to 3.7 Mbit/s

Virgin Media, through their cable service, offer a package ‘up to’ 10Mbit/s and the average speed obtained in between 8.1 to 8.7Mbit/s.

You can get some great broadband deals from Virgin Media – as long as of course you are in a cabled area, you can check this on the Virgin media broadband post code checker.

A number of factors affect the broadband speeds actually achieved. Some of these are in the home and as such you have some control over them.

The Ofcom report though is referring to the broadband speeds actually offered by the ISP providers themselves.

It’s their technology and network capacity that will directly affect this and clearly there is gap between the advertised ‘up to’ speeds and the ‘actual’ broadband speeds being delivered.

Those in urban areas fair better than those in rural areas with average speeds at 4.6Mbit/s compared to 3.3Mbit/s.

All ISPs delivered slower performance during the peak hours of 8-10PM.

Whilst the majority of consumers say they are happy with the broadband speeds delivered by their ISP, some 26% don’t believe they’re getting the speed they expected when they signed up for the service.