43 Percent of UK Broadband Users Don’t Know their Upload Speed

A new survey from UK ISP Voneus, which is based off data gathered from 3,000 people who purchased a broadband plan (from any ISP) within the last 12-months, has found that 43% could not identify their package’s upload speed. Uploads were also found to be one-third as important as download speeds when selecting a plan.

Voneus claims the data also indicates that “a lack of provider competition has meant upload speeds have become less of a priority in the nation’s villages.” Some 55% of all homes in villages were found to have signed-up with their current ISP because they were the only one supplying services to the premises, and upload speeds ranked 5th in the list when it came to reasons why their current ISP was selected.

In fairness, the dominant national network (e.g. Openreach) supplies hundreds of UK ISPs and often via several broadband technologies (e.g. ADSL, FTTC, G.fast, FTTP etc.), thus it sounds like there may be a significant problem around awareness of that choice if 55% of village households aren’t aware that other ISPs exist. This is before we even consider how many alternative network providers may also be present, which will vary, although rural coverage is extremely limited.

Otherwise, consumers in villages allegedly found “cost, a high data provision, and installation time” to be more significant reasons to select an ISP than upload speeds. But we aren’t quite sure what they meant by “high data provision” (usage allowance or speeds?) and no data was provided to support how popular each reason was. By comparison, for those who live in cities, upload speeds were found to be the 2nd largest consideration, behind download speeds.

Finally, video conferencing (34%) and video calling (31%) were found to be the two most common activities on a broadband connection, which seems odd as a lot of people would probably see those as referencing the same thing (i.e. a video call can also be a video conference etc.). Likewise, other surveys have tended to put things like web browsing, social media and video streaming (i.e. Netflix, YouTube, iPlayer) at the top of the table for consumers.

Sue Barnes, CCO at Voneus, said:

“This research paints an interesting picture about where consumer knowledge and priorities lie when it comes to selecting a broadband plan.

Users have been incorrectly taught for too long that download speeds alone are all that is required for a strong broadband connection.

In the age of video calls, at-home streaming on demand and online games which demand split-second reflexes, having a low upload speed is incredibly detrimental to the service you are paying for.”

We should point out that, when it comes to online games, the need for “split-second reflexes” in-game is usually more dependent upon faster latency times than raw upload speed (unless you’re into cloud gaming / remote play) – not to mention a good download speed to get the latest software updates. Indeed, so long as your upload performance isn’t being saturated by demand from other users on the local network, then you often only require a fairly low upstream speed to have a smooth game.

Admittedly, it’s only in recent years that upload speeds have truly risen in importance, thanks to cloud-based gaming, video bloggers, Twitch and the need to work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic etc. Nevertheless, download performance remains the most important metric for most consumers, but Voneus are right to highlight the growing relevance of upstream.

Having said all that, it’s worth remembering that this survey is very much the product of vested interests (i.e. Voneus are deploying wireless and FTTP networks to rural communities). Likewise, a lot of the results data was missing and no information was provided on the survey’s methodology (i.e. this leaves too much room for selective interpretation). Take with the usual pinch of salt.