Ovum Says UK Consumers Need 10Mbps Minimum Broadband Speed

London-based analyst firm Ovum has published a new report (Global Broadband Experience Scorecard 2015), which among other things concludes that for typical usage broadband ISPs must be able to deliver a minimum of 10Mbps (Megabits per second); rising to 50Mbps for users of Ultra HD (4K) video.

The report, which looked at a mix of 30 countries across the world and ranked the United Kingdom 8th overall (tied with the USA in the same position), appears to support similar calls from the national telecoms regulator (Ofcom) and not to mention last week’s report from the Federation of Small Businesses (here).

Overall the WHITE PAPER drew all of its analysis together and used that to highlight the three core components for delivering “the best network experience” to consumers. As usual this should be taken with a pinch of salt, since different people have different needs and that will no doubt give rise to alternative perspectives on the report’s findings.

Core Components for the Best Network Experience

1. Network performance: A stable and reliable network, waiting time (zero to maximum 3 secs), buffering (‘never’ to ‘rare’) and picture quality (‘excellent’ rating).

2. Network speed: Minimum 10Mbps for Internet applications and SD video, 50Mbps+ for UHD/HD video.

3. Excellent customer service: Issue resolution at first contact, responsive service provisioning, activation and restoration.

At present the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK programme is already working predominantly with BT to ensure that 95% of people can access a superfast broadband (24Mbps+) service by 2017/18. It’s also expected that a plan to reach the final 5% will surface before the end of 2015, with inferior Satellite likely to be used to fill the very last 1-2%.

But the current Universal Service Obligation (USO) only legally requires, upon an end-user request, BTOpenreach to deliver a phone line that is capable of dial-up style Internet connectivity. A review will soon look at whether or not this USO should be raised to support a minimum speed of 5Mbps, although Ofcom, Ovum and many others suggest that even this isn’t going to be fast enough.

In fairness you can do most things with a 5Mbps connection, including a single so-so quality HD video stream, but this soon begins to struggle when you enter a family or even office environment with lots of connected devices all sucking from the same pipe.

Michael Philpott, co-Author of the Report, said:

“Demands on broadband service provided to consumers is compounded by the rise in connected devices. Homes in mature markets were found to typically have up to four devices connected to the network, all of which have the potential to support a wide range of applications.

Ever since broadband services were launched, there has been discussion on what is the definition of broadband and how much speed do consumers really need? In 2015, the answer is at least 10Mbps if you wish to receive a good-quality broadband experience, and a significant number of households, even in well-developed broadband countries, are well shy of this mark.

With a clear link between poor user experience and customer churn, broadband service providers need to continue to invest in broadband infrastructure in order to provide their customers with the best broadband experience and maintain a satisfied customer base.”

In political terms it’s not all bad news for the Government’s broadband policy, with the report stating that Europe “remains the best performing region” and this leadership is being “driven by high-performing countries such as France, Spain, Sweden and the UK which have high levels of high-speed infrastructure“.

Mind you it also states that the UK’s “growth momentum is exceedingly low in fixed broadband implementation“. Elsewhere the report finds that just giving high bandwidth connections is not enough to ensure satisfied customers. “Customers experiencing issues such as buffering, latency, low picture quality, or long update times are more likely to be dis-satisfied,” said Ovum.

On the flip side we must not forget that updating the USO may also attract higher costs, unless it’s expanded to cheat with include Satellite connectivity of course, but even that doesn’t come cheap and consumers may end up footing the bill.

Interestingly the Government also has an often forgotten non-binding universal commitment (USC) to deliver at least 2Mbps to all by 2016, but this has always appeared to be in a rather odd conflict with the long term aspiration for 100% coverage of “superfast” speeds.