The incumbent telecoms operator and ISP for Hull and East Riding in Yorkshire, KC ( Karoo ), has yet again criticised the country's broadband infrastructure after new data from Akamai (here) revealed that the average UK internet download speed during Q1-2010 was just 3.8Mbps. KC claims that rival ISPs are also to blame for "not making adequate investments in their networks".Nick Thompson, Director of Consumer Services at KC, said:
"It’s disheartening to see that the UK has slipped down the league table of global internet speeds. More and more consumers are embracing bandwidth hungry applications, such as the BBC iPlayer, and if the infrastructure is not there to support next generation services there is a danger that UK consumers will miss out on developments like Telehealth.
We’re proud to say that customers using KC’s network get to benefit from an average of 7.65Mbps according to Net Index. The Akamai research suggests that providers are not making adequate investments in their networks and the Government’s unambitious target of 2Mbps by 2015 is clearly not going to improve our position on the global stage."
"It’s disheartening to see that the UK has slipped down the league table of global internet speeds. More and more consumers are embracing bandwidth hungry applications, such as the BBC iPlayer, and if the infrastructure is not there to support next generation services there is a danger that UK consumers will miss out on developments like Telehealth.
We’re proud to say that customers using KC’s network get to benefit from an average of 7.65Mbps according to Net Index. The Akamai research suggests that providers are not making adequate investments in their networks and the Government’s unambitious target of 2Mbps by 2015 is clearly not going to improve our position on the global stage."
It's worth pointing out that Ofcom's recent data for May 2010 pegged the average download speed as 5.2Mbps (here). KC also risks confusing people by quoting the speed from Akamai and then referencing the score from Ookla's questionable and completely separate Net Index (recent Ookla UK ISP data).
Elsewhere another independent study for July 2010 recorded the average speed as 5.106Mbps (here). The Akamai vs Ookla data confusion is further deepened by the fact that Ookla's "live" average UK broadband ISP download speed data today stands at 7.77Mbps; considerably higher than literally all the other studies and research we've seen.
We suspect that BT and Virgin Media might have a thing or two to say about KC's "adequate investment" remark too. However most people would agree with KC when it comes to government policy. A minimum speed target of 2Mbps for all by 2015 is far too weak, especially given the dramatic growth of online video content and other online content demands.
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Comments: 2
whatAboutThe UploadRatePosted: 10 August, 2010 - 3:39 PM
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as always its a case of forgetting to even consider the actual upload rate a given UK ISP can or does actually provide, without a good upload ratio compared to the actual downland rate your intent speeds cant possibly improve.
SO, what about the actual upload rates and ratio's are you trying to send ack's for your average binary download and being limited by your crep upload rate,put simply 512Kbit through 1.5 Mbit/s upload rates are crep if you intend ever using that download to even near its full potential
MarkJPosted: 10 August, 2010 - 4:08 PM
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To be fair the upstream latency has more of an influence on what you're talking about than the actual upload speed; the two should not be confused and upstream latency is generally pretty good for many ISPs. But on the other hand I do agree, uploads are getting shunned by a lot of ISPs, often because the numbers don't work well for marketing.
However upload speed is only something you really notice if direct uploading activity is exactly what you're doing, such as adding a video to YouTube or pictures to Facebook. Poor upload speeds can also have a negative effect on other services when sharing content over P2P, at least it does if you don't prevent the client from eating all of your upstream speed.
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