ofcom rates the speed of ISPs 28 July 2009 at 7:23AM in Broadband & Internet Access 13 replies 1.9K views

londondulwich

Tiscali doesn't score very high, and I thought surprisingly, Plusnet does rather well.

Virgin comes out as the fastest.

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/features/broadbandspeedsjy

biscit

I had 02 on the phone trying to sell me broadband. I said my speed was as fast as I could get 1 mile from the telephone exchange. They said what was that. I said 4Mb/s. They said they could double it.

I live 1 mile from the telephone exchange, 1 mile of copper cable slows the digital signal down due to noise.

It's "Up to 8Mb"- in ideal circumstances. 8Mb is a max, not a typical figure and clearly expressed as such.

There are physical factors and technical limitations that todays Ofcom report fails to take on board. True they're a bit techy for most people to be interested in, but a telecoms regulator writing a report of this nature should take them into account.

Former_MSE_Guy

This is the discussion thread for the following MSE News Story:

"Advertised broadband speeds are often misleading, according to a report by the communications watchdog Ofcom out this morning.
It says there is a "lack of reliable information on the speed" by internet service providers. The investigation found average broadband speed was less than 60% of the typical advertised performance ..."

Read the full story:
Broadband speed claims are "unreliable" – report

Thanks to londondulwich for the original post

DatabaseError

biscit wrote: »

I had 02 on the phone trying to sell me broadband. I said my speed was as fast as I could get 1 mile from the telephone exchange. They said what was that. I said 4Mb/s. They said they could double it.

I live 1 mile from the telephone exchange, 1 mile of copper cable slows the digital signal down due to noise.

It's "Up to 8Mb"- in ideal circumstances. 8Mb is a max, not a typical figure and clearly expressed as such.

There are physical factors and technical limitations that todays Ofcom report fails to take on board. True they're a bit techy for most people to be interested in, but a telecoms regulator writing a report of this nature should take them into account.

O2 were probably offering you their LLU ADSL2+ service, which is NOT the 'up to 8mbs' ADSL service which you are comparing it to, as it uses different technologies on the same copper

ACID

biscit wrote: »

I had 02 on the phone trying to sell me broadband. I said my speed was as fast as I could get 1 mile from the telephone exchange. They said what was that. I said 4Mb/s. They said they could double it.

I live 1 mile from the telephone exchange, 1 mile of copper cable slows the digital signal down due to noise.

It's "Up to 8Mb"- in ideal circumstances. 8Mb is a max, not a typical figure and clearly expressed as such.

There are physical factors and technical limitations that todays Ofcom report fails to take on board. True they're a bit techy for most people to be interested in, but a telecoms regulator writing a report of this nature should take them into account.

O2 wouldve offered you adsl +2
different options..its LLU
and can be upto 20meg in good areas.

you prob wouldve and could receive 8meg

mrJ_5

Well yes, but no.... line length is a factor that influences speed - not just the ISP. The report is fairly misleading. It would be better if the same property had different connections coming in and then measuring the speeds from then - so all things being closer to equal, you can get a better report (but then you still have line length to contend with).

So what the report is suggesting, is that ISPs should advertise the same package multiple times with different speeds and then say... oh... sorry, you can't have this one nor this one. Using "up to" is better terminology for the ISP and the end user - if the end user doesn't undersatnd "up to" then they're shouldn't get it.

It's a bit like saying in the lottery, you can win up to £X million - but if you get 3 numbers you won't get this (you'd get £10) but not what you wanted to get. And if you get 2 numbers or less - you get nothing, but then you still won up to that amount as £0 preceeds them all....

duggie1982

Well with talk talk i had about 4-6meg (average from my exchance to house) but when had recent fault bt changed some cables and not its 9-10meg and im on a 'upto 8megs' tarriff.

Most companies when you enter your number or postcode it will tell you your 'true' speeds which is a good thing i think

duggie1982

mrJ wrote: »

Well yes, but no.... line length is a factor that influences speed - not just the ISP. The report is fairly misleading. It would be better if the same property had different connections coming in and then measuring the speeds from then - so all things being closer to equal, you can get a better report (but then you still have line length to contend with).

So what the report is suggesting, is that ISPs should advertise the same package multiple times with different speeds and then say... oh... sorry, you can't have this one nor this one. Using "up to" is better terminology for the ISP and the end user - if the end user doesn't undersatnd "up to" then they're shouldn't get it.

It's a bit like saying in the lottery, you can win up to £X million - but if you get 3 numbers you won't get this (you'd get £10) but not what you wanted to get. And if you get 2 numbers or less - you get nothing, but then you still won up to that amount as £0 preceeds them all....

Brilliant example! Good one.

macman

biscit wrote: »

I had 02 on the phone trying to sell me broadband. I said my speed was as fast as I could get 1 mile from the telephone exchange. They said what was that. I said 4Mb/s. They said they could double it.

I live 1 mile from the telephone exchange, 1 mile of copper cable slows the digital signal down due to noise.

It's "Up to 8Mb"- in ideal circumstances. 8Mb is a max, not a typical figure and clearly expressed as such.

There are physical factors and technical limitations that todays Ofcom report fails to take on board. True they're a bit techy for most people to be interested in, but a telecoms regulator writing a report of this nature should take them into account.

O2 can and do give you more speed on the 'up to 8 MBps' Standard service, because they use ADSL2+ on their LLU exchanges. My sister has this package, lives about 3/4 mile from the exchange and gets a steady 7.1MBps. So when they said they could double your speed, they may not have been stretching the truth too far.

syko29793

I have O2 broadband and have a speed of 3.5 meg. I have had BT broadband and plusnet broadband before and never got over 1meg. In fact BT speed checker still says now that i can only get 1 meg speed even though i have 3.5mbs with O2. So it looks as if O2/BE seem to have some tech advantage over any other isp.

Snakeeyes21

1600 homes, thats not exacally alot to make a comparison. How far were these homes from the exchange?
i have tiscali and on average i get 3.8 a mate in the next street who is on bt doesnt even get 1mb