Map from Ofcom map showing UK broadband speeds - click to see the interactive version.
The average broadband speed in Britain has jumped by 10% in half a year – but consumers still are not getting the speeds they pay for, new research shows.
Media regulator Ofcom found the typical broadband user in the UK got a speed of 6.8 megabits per second in May this year, up from 6.2 last November.
And almost half of residential broadband users were on packages with advertised speeds above 10mb/s in May, compared with just 8% in April 2009. However, as average speeds rise, so do suppliers’ claims.
The average advertised speed in May 2011 was 15mb/s, compared with 13.8mb/s six months earlier.
That suggests the gap between actual speeds and advertised ‘up to’ speeds has widened. Chris Williams of comparison site Simplifydigital.com said it was “encouraging” to see broadband speeds increase but “equally dispiriting” to see the advertising gap widen.
“It’s important that providers do all they can to ensure subscribers get what they’re paying for,” he said.
“That’s something which will be assisted by the continued roll-out of superfast fibre broadband services which are capable of delivering higher speeds than the old copper ADSL telephone lines.”
Ofcom’s report found superfast broadband is now available to most UK homes and availability continues to grow.
The regulator’s chief executive Ed Richards said: “By publishing this research, Ofcom has encouraged ISPs to invest in faster broadband networks.
“We are now seeing consumers increasingly move to higher rated services and enjoying genuinely faster speeds.
He went on: “However, the research is still telling us that some consumers are not receiving anywhere near the speeds that are being advertised by some ISPs.”
Source : Sky News
