"Broadband users cheated on speeds"

[Mel]

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/116035/b...on-speeds.html

Just one in five broadband users receive the speed that they signed up for.
New research by Moneysupermarket reveals that only 21% of UK subscribers get the top speed, with 44% getting half the advertised performance.

Only 6% of subscribers to Sky's "up to 16Mb" package get near this speed, with 78% only achieving speeds of up to 8Mb/sec. Over half of Talk Talk (61%), Orange (57%) and BT (51%) customers on an "up to 8Mb/sec" deal only achieve speeds of up to 4Mbsec.

Consequently, 30% of broadband subscribers feel they have been misled. "I urge all people to check what deal they are on and then ask their broadband provider for a free upgrade, so they may actually get a noticeable increase in their speed," says Jason Lloyd, Moneysupermarket.com's head of broadband. "Providers are aware in many cases they don't deliver the speed they promise and so will be keen to appease unhappy customers wherever they can."

[Techno Peasant]

I understand the point of this - but surely it's not all the fault of the ISPs.

I get my broadband "delivered" over my BT phone line - like most people. Unfortunately I live a long way from the exchange and have a line loss > 60 dB. Consequently I only get 1 Mbps speeds from an "up to 8 Mb" service.

Hardly the fault of my ISP (which for the record is Fast4)

[akbray]

Perhaps better (and more obvious) explanations of the factors affecting real-life speed would be a good idea, particularly on ISP websites.

[Mark.J]

To be honest I'm surprised it's even 1 in 5, shouldn't that be more like 0.1 in 5 unless you physically live on top of your ISP's broadband terminals . Technically almost nobody will receive the absolute top speed of their connection, although admittedly I'm being far too literal. The technical limitations of ADSL certainly play a major role.

[Techno Peasant]

Originally Posted by akbray

Perhaps better (and more obvious) explanations of the factors affecting real-life speed would be a good idea, particularly on ISP websites.

Sounds reasonable in theory.....

...but would your average punter who only wants to surf a little and make the odd purchase be able to understand even the most basic explanation.

Most ISPs do make some sort of footnote comment about factors such as line length and quality affecting the overall download speed. If anyone can be bothered to understand more (like those of us ion ISPr) there are plenty of resources that explain in as much detail as we want.

For most folk - like my mum and dad - broadband is simply a way to be able to surf and talk on the phone at the same time....and anything is an improvement from dial-up

[Mel]

Originally Posted by Mark.J

To be honest I'm surprised it's even 1 in 5

It does seem a bit high, perhaps a lot of people are still on relatively undemanding 512k - 2mbps fixed speed connections. Mind you my ISP did try to palm me off with a 512kbps connection on a 1mbps package

Even if you live close enough to the exchange to get 8mbps chances are much of the time you actually use the connection you could experience the effects of traffic management or congestion.


The 6% Sky figure doesn't surprise me, well if anything it is higher than I would have guessed after reading some of the complaints about the difficulty some customers seem to have getting Sky's support to switch their service from ADSL1 to ADSL2+. I'm planning to go for Sky next, but I'm not going to bother with for the Max package when LLU becomes available at my exchange even though I might get a marginal gain in performance as the chances of them providing me ADSL2+ seems remote.

[akbray]

Originally Posted by Mel

It does seem a bit high, perhaps a lot of people are still on relatively undemanding 512k - 2mbps fixed speed connections. Mind you my ISP did try to palm me off with a 512kbps connection on a 1mbps package

I was on a 512k package until recently. I'm now awaiting connection to a 24mb package from Be (activation scheduled for Monday - can't wait since I'm currently on dial up). I live about 500m from the exchange as the crow flies, so it wil be interesting to see what kind of speeds I get.

Originally Posted by techno peasant

For most folk - like my mum and dad - broadband is simply a way to be able to surf and talk on the phone at the same time....and anything is an improvement from dial-up

I agree - which makes me a little suspicious of these numbers. How do they know 21% of people are not getting thier speeds when so many people don't know or care what their speeds should be? How can their data be accurate?

Especially when you'd pretty much have to be directly connected to the exchange to get the full speed anyway

TBH, except when the issue is throttling / capping I think this would be a non-issue if the technology was properly explained. If the explanation is hidden in the small print then the ISP runs the risk of being accused of trying to mislead customers by hiding the limitations of their services - even if that isn't the case.

[metalmonkey]

Just one in five broadband users receive the speed that they signed up for

Rubbish, all user get the speed they signed up for because all ISP's state "up to" Xmbps. At no point have I seen an ISP say "guarenteed" Xmbps. If anyone knows one that guarantees a speed then point them out.

[Mel]

As it happens, there was one advertising 8mbps on this very site just last year with no mention of "up to" in the ad.

If only a handful of users are going to get anywhere near X mbps, perhaps ISPs shouldn't be advertising up to X mbps without stating what the average download speed for a typical user is, after throttling, congestion and limitations caused by the distance to the exchange etc.

[metalmonkey]

Originally Posted by Mel

If only a handful of users are going to get anywhere near X mbps, perhaps ISPs shouldn't be advertising up to X mbps without stating what the average download speed for a typical user is, after throttling, congestion and limitations caused by the distance to the exchange etc.

Hmmm maybe, if it bothers people that much.
I can understand some frustration from those who only get 512kbps but at least they get broadband, there are still a very small selection that don't. However I wouldn't moan if i'd got my broadband from an up to 8 mbps ISP but was only getting 4mbps (as quoted above from talktalk/bt/orange). I'm just grateful to have anything better than a dial-up connection speed. Don't think I could go back to that again.