{"id":7167,"date":"2014-10-03T10:52:55","date_gmt":"2014-10-03T09:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/?p=7167"},"modified":"2014-10-03T12:13:58","modified_gmt":"2014-10-03T11:13:58","slug":"rural-vs-urban-gap-closing-average-uk-broadband-speeds-hit-18-7mbps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2014\/10\/rural-vs-urban-gap-closing-average-uk-broadband-speeds-hit-18-7mbps.html","title":{"rendered":"UPD Rural vs Urban Gap Closing as Average Broadband Speeds Hit 18.7Mbps"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"shortlink shortlink-133 shortlink-chref\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/link\/ofcom\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"ofcom\" data-chref=\"https:\/\/www.ofcom.org.uk\">Ofcom<\/a>&#8217;s latest biannual report into the real-world speeds of fixed line broadband ISP consumers across the United Kingdom reveals that the Internet performance gap between rural and urban areas is still wide,\u00a0yet their speeds are now improving at a faster rate (+20% rural vs +5% urban\u00a0\/ suburban).\u00a0Overall the average download\u00a0rate has\u00a0risen by just\u00a05% to reach 18.7Mbps\u00a0(up from 17.8Mbps in the last report).<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s important to stress that the telecom regulators report reflects data gathered to\u00a0May 2014 and is arguably more accurate than most because it uses real-world information collected\u00a0via custom <a class=\"shortlink shortlink-139 shortlink-chref\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/link\/samknows\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"samknows\" data-chref=\"https:\/\/www.samknows.com\">SamKnows<\/a> monitoring routers, which have been installed in homes across the country.\u00a0But this must be weighed against the fact that only <strong>2,175 homes<\/strong> have installed such a device, which altogether conducted <strong>2.7 billion separate tests<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The report also includes experimental analysis of<strong> Internet connection reliability<\/strong> (service disruptions and disconnections), which found that older style <a class=\"shortlink shortlink-121 shortlink-chref\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/link\/adsl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"digital subscriber line\" data-chref=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/broadband_DSL.php\">ADSL<\/a> broadband lines experienced an average of 0.5 disconnections lasting longer than 30 seconds per day. By comparison customers on &#8220;<em>superfast<\/em>&#8221; (30Mbps+)\u00a0fibre and cable broadband packages experienced less disruption, an average of 0.1 disconnections lasting longer than 30 seconds per day. <a class=\"shortlink shortlink-133 shortlink-chref\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/link\/ofcom\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"ofcom\" data-chref=\"https:\/\/www.ofcom.org.uk\">Ofcom<\/a> intends to expand upon this in future reports.<\/p>\n<p>Otherwise\u00a0it&#8217;s no surprise to find that broadband speeds, including the <strong>average upload rate<\/strong> that increased to 2.4Mbps (up by just 5% from 2.3Mbps at the last report), have continued to rise. The ever faster speeds being delivered\u00a0over <a class=\"shortlink shortlink-65\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/go\/vm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"virgin media\">Virgin Media<\/a>&#8217;s 152Mbps capable cable (<a class=\"shortlink shortlink-113 shortlink-chref\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/link\/docsis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"docsis\" data-chref=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/broadband_cable.php\">DOCSIS<\/a>) network and the growing availability of <a class=\"shortlink shortlink-145\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/go\/britishtelecom\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"BT\">BT<\/a>&#8217;s up to 40-80Mbps <a class=\"shortlink shortlink-120 shortlink-chref\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/link\/fttc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"fttc\" data-chref=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/broadband_cable.php\">FTTC<\/a> lines continue to drive the majority of increases, while older 8-20Mbps <a class=\"shortlink shortlink-121 shortlink-chref\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/link\/adsl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"digital subscriber line\" data-chref=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/broadband_DSL.php\">ADSL<\/a> \/ ADSL2+ services remain fairly flat. But the impact of crosstalk interference might be hurting FTTC, which has seen its average performance (dominates FTTx below) fall to be overtaken by cable.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"ngg-singlepic ngg-none\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/wp-content\/gallery\/2014-internet-statistics\/ofcom_average_uk_broadband_isp_speeds_by_technology_q2_2014.gif\" alt=\"ofcom average uk broadband isp speeds by technology q2 2014\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Meanwhile\u00a0rural areas are continuing to lag behind their urban counterparts, which is to be expected. The <strong>Digital Speed Divide<\/strong> exists because so far most of the broadband performance improvements, even those funded by the state aid fuelled <a class=\"shortlink shortlink-66 shortlink-chref\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/link\/bduk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"building digital uk\" data-chref=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/guidance\/building-digital-uk\">Broadband Delivery UK<\/a> (BDUK) scheme, have predominantly focused on urban and sub-urban areas.<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully\u00a0that is starting to change and so we are now seeing a more noticeable improvement in rural areas as older ADSL lines are replaced by FTTC and some ultrafast\u00a0<a class=\"shortlink shortlink-110 shortlink-chref\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/link\/fttp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"fttp\" data-chref=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/broadband_fibre_optic.php\">FTTP<\/a> (BDUK\u00a0aims to\u00a0bring 24Mbps+ fixed line superfast broadband\u00a0to 95% of the UK by 2017). But in terms of raw speed there&#8217;s still a big gap to be bridged.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"ngg-singlepic ngg-none\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/wp-content\/gallery\/2014-internet-statistics\/ofcom_average_uk_rural_vs_urban_broadband_speeds_q2_2014.gif\" alt=\"ofcom average uk rural vs urban broadband speeds q2 2014\" \/><\/div>\n<p>According to Ofcom&#8217;s analysis, rural customers experienced a bigger increase in average broadband speeds (up by 20% to 13.6Mbps) than people in urban and suburban areas (up by 5% to 33.4Mbps and 22.9Mbps respectively).<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #339966;\"><strong>Specific ISP Performance and Latency<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>As usual Ofcom&#8217;s report, being based on such a small sample size, can only reflect the performance of the largest broadband ISPs, which is an important consideration because smaller ISPs tend to pay more attention to quality and would probably do well; especially\u00a0in the next few tables that\u00a0track individual ISP performance by connection technology.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"ngg-singlepic ngg-none\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/wp-content\/gallery\/2014-internet-statistics\/ofcom_average_download_speed_by_isp_q2_2014.gif\" alt=\"ofcom average download speed by isp q2 2014\" \/><\/div>\n<p>As usual there&#8217;s not a lot to choose between the ADSL2+ based providers, which all exhibit fairly similar performance because it&#8217;s a saturated market and most are already running up against the limits of their existing copper lines, while the superior top speeds of <a class=\"shortlink shortlink-65\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/go\/vm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"virgin media\">Virgin Media<\/a>&#8217;s cable network clearly lead the big boys corner in terms of download speed.<\/p>\n<p>However the fastest FTTC lines do tend to have better upload speeds (not shown above)\u00a0of up to 20Mbps, which compares with\u00a012Mbps on Virgin&#8217;s 152Mbps option.\u00a0Meanwhile\u00a0both Virgin&#8217;s cable and the FTTC packages on <a class=\"shortlink shortlink-145\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/go\/britishtelecom\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"BT\">BT<\/a>&#8217;s infrastructure\u00a0seem to deliver average speeds that are fairly close or above their respective\u00a0packages headline (advertised) rate. By comparison the 9Mbps or so from older and less reliable ADSL2+ services\u00a0remain well below the services theoretical top speed of 20Mbps+.<\/p>\n<p>The next area of performance we&#8217;ll look at concerns <strong>Latency<\/strong>, which is a crucial measure of the time (delay in milliseconds \/\u00a01000ms = 1 second) that it takes for a single packet of data to travel from your computer to a remote server and then back again (ping). A lower score\u00a0is always best (shortest time) and this measure is especially important for fans of online multiplayer games, where a low ping gives you smoother and more accurate gameplay.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"ngg-singlepic ngg-none\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/wp-content\/gallery\/2014-internet-statistics\/ofcom_average_latency_by_isp_q2_2014.gif\" alt=\"ofcom_average_latency_by_isp_q2_2014\" \/><\/div>\n<div style=\"height: 15px;\" align=\"center\"><\/div>\n<div align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"ngg-singlepic ngg-none\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/wp-content\/gallery\/2014-internet-statistics\/ofcom_average_latency_by_superfast_isp_q2_2014.gif\" alt=\"ofcom_average_latency_by_superfast_isp_q2_2014\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The good news is that\u00a0there&#8217;s not much to choose between the ISPs here and even older ADSL2+ services deliver reasonable latency (ping) performance. In fact if this chart included an ancient 128Kbps ISDN line then you&#8217;d probably still see many of the listed ISPs above being beaten by it because this is one area where pumping out lots of Mbps isn&#8217;t as crucial as the efficiency of the underlying digital network.<\/p>\n<p>True fibre optic (<a class=\"shortlink shortlink-122 shortlink-chref\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/link\/ftth\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"ftth\" data-chref=\"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/broadband_fibre_optic.php\">FTTH<\/a>\/P) networks also tend to work very efficiently for low latency, although sadly Ofcom&#8217;s report doesn&#8217;t highlight these connections because none of the big ISPs have a significantly large enough pure fibre optic network (i.e. not enough data for useful statistics).<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #339966;\"><strong>Speed Complaints<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Unfortunately not everybody gets the speed their ISP promises to deliver and thus it&#8217;s important to be aware of the rules that could help. Firstly, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.asa.org.uk\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #227ab4;\">Advertising Standards Authority&#8217;s<\/span><\/a> guidelines for tackling <strong>misleading promotions<\/strong> of \u201c<em>up to<\/em>\u201d broadband speeds (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2012\/04\/uk-isps-react-as-asa-starts-enforcing-new-broadband-advertising-rules.html\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #227ab4;\">here<\/span><\/a>) require ISPs to \u201c<em>demonstrate that [their] advertised speeds are achievable by at least 10% of users<\/em>\u201c. This is why so many providers now promote a \u201c<em>typical<\/em>\u201d speed (average performance based on that 10%) instead of the technologies theoretical top speed.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time Ofcom&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk\/telecoms\/codes-of-practice\/broadband-speeds-cop-2010\/code-of-practice\/\" target=\"_blank\">2010 Voluntary Broadband Speeds Code of Practice<\/a> (Version 2) requires member ISPs (<a href=\"http:\/\/stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk\/telecoms\/codes-of-practice\/broadband-speeds-cop-2010\/list-of-isps-2010\" target=\"_new\"><span style=\"color: #227ab4;\">Listed Here<\/span><\/a>) to explain to new customers the access line speed that they\u2019re likely to achieve at home, and to try to resolve any problems when speeds fall significantly below the estimate. If the ISP fails to resolve the problem then customers should be able to <strong>leave their ISP<\/strong>, without penalty, within the first 3 months of a new contract. But switching ISP without fixing the underlying issue first may not result in better performance, although a new provider may still show more willingness to help.<\/p>\n<p>On top of that the regulator has recently imposed new <strong>Quality of Service<\/strong> standards upon BTOpenreach (i.e. faster installs, quicker repairs and making available more information), although the new measures typically focus more on tackling connectivity problems than end-user\u00a0performance woes (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2014\/06\/ofcom-uk-impose-new-quality-service-rules-upon-bt-openreach.html\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>). Ofcom are also making it <strong>easier to switch ISP<\/strong>, but this system won&#8217;t be ready until <strong>June 2015<\/strong> and then ISPs will probably be given another year to introduce it (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2013\/12\/ofcom-refine-new-uk-phone-broadband-isp-switching-proposal.html\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Generally the rules are far from perfect and Ofcom are currently making some revisions to their speed code (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2014\/03\/ofcom-revising-broadband-speed-code-practice-uk-isps.html\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>), although we won&#8217;t know the outcome of that until later this year (it&#8217;s not expected to be a significant change). In the meantime it&#8217;s also worth remembering that consumer broadband is very much a &#8220;<em>Best Efforts<\/em>&#8221; service, where capacity needs to be shared between many users in order to\u00a0be affordable. Customers that want something better\u00a0still have to look towards expensive business leased lines, which aren&#8217;t really practical for domestic needs.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Ofcom&#8217;s UK Fixed Line Broadband Speed Study (May 2014\u00a0Data)<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk\/binaries\/research\/broadband-research\/may2014\/Fixed_bb_speeds_May_2014.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk\/binaries\/..\/Fixed_bb_speeds_May_2014.pdf<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>UPDATE 12:11pm<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A quick comment from the Government and Virgin Media.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"bq1\"><p><strong>Ed Vaizey, Digital Economy Minister, told ISPreview.co.uk:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<em>I\u2019m delighted to say that these findings, whilst fantastic news, are not unexpected. Government has taken access to superfast broadband speeds to more than 1 million homes and businesses across the UK through our nationwide rollout, which has been instrumental in average speeds increasing by more than 3 and a half times since May 2010<\/em>.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"bq1\"><p><strong>Tom Mockridge, Virgin Media\u2019s CEO, added:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<em>We&#8217;re delighted to be officially rated the UK&#8217;s fastest broadband provider six years in a row. When it comes to making the most of our increasingly connected lives, speed matters. Virgin Media continues to invest in bringing superfast broadband to Britain at home, at work and on the go<\/em>.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ofcom&#8217;s latest biannual report into the real-world speeds of fixed line broadband ISP consumers across the United Kingdom reveals that the Internet performance gap between rural and urban areas is still wide,\u00a0yet their speeds are now improving at a faster rate (+20% rural vs +5% urban\u00a0\/ suburban).\u00a0Overall the average download\u00a0rate has\u00a0risen by just\u00a05% to reach [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[150,474,405,76,36,84,66,34,74,475],"class_list":["post-7167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uk_isp_news","tag-awards","tag-bt","tag-ee","tag-kc","tag-ofcom-regulation","tag-plusnet","tag-sky-broadband","tag-statistics","tag-talktalk","tag-virgin-media"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - 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