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KCOM Group Calls for Sustainable UK Broadband Speeds - Hints at 10Mbps

Posted: 27th Apr, 2010 By: MarkJ

ISP Kingston Communications ( KCOM Group , Karoo , Eclipse Internet ) has warned that, regardless of which political party comes to power on 6th May, the delivery of "sustainable broadband for all" must be the goal. KCOM also criticised the often touted headline speed of 100Mbps and suggests that 10Mbps is more realistic for actual consumer requirements.

KC's Director of Consumer and Publishing Services, Nick Thompson, told ISPreview.co.uk exclusively:

"The broadband industry is in the midst of an unprecedented revolution – and opinions abound as to how the ‘next generation’ of services should be deployed. ... ‘Speeds of up to’ have formed the magic words that create so much expectation and deliver such poor brand experience.

To achieve sustainable broadband for all, we need to concentrate less on raw speed figures and focus more on how the industry can deliver consistent, stable download and upload speeds that customers want to use today and will want to use in the foreseeable future."

Under the current and largely copper based infrastructure (excluding Virgin Media UK's cable network) most homes and businesses are connected by DSL based broadband technologies. But drive far enough away from an exchange and even the fastest ‘up to’ 24Mbps ADSL2+ connection can break down to delivering less than a single megabit, while other areas have no broadband at all.

Ofcom’s April 2009 statistics found that the average UK broadband download speed was estimated to be 4.1Mbps. Last week's Q4-2009 Akamai report suggested that the figure was closer to 3.7Mbps (here), while other price comparison site studies have put it closer to 4.5Mbps. In any case, all those figures are far lower than the headline rates advertised by most ISPs.

Thompson continued:

"Perhaps a more relevant debate would be; is more speed what our customers’ require and is it the solution to the challenges of effective broadband delivery? Commentators frequently point to Japan and Korea as exemplars of high speed broadband with their 100Mbps service, but if you actually drill down into customer usage 10Mbps seems to be the level. The crux of the ISP challenge is less speed and more consistency. Upload is another challenge we must master.

Whoever comes to power on 6th May must have a comprehensive strategy on how to deliver consistent broadband for all, with the appropriate figures behind it. It is a critical part of the UK’s commercial infrastructure and is imperative to our future economic success."

It's worth remembering that speed and infrastructure are related, hence even aiming to deliver a sustainable speed of 10Mbps would still require the construction of a new underlying network. We covered this with more detail in a recent article: The Real Importance of a 100Mbps National UK Broadband Speed.

The reality here is that a 100Mbps capable network is nice to have, especially for future proofing, but its real benefit to ordinary consumers will come from an ability to deliver minimum broadband speeds with greater reliability. Interestingly our current front page survey suggests that nearly half of respondents feel they "need" real speeds of 20Mbps or greater.

Related News:
13th April - UK Labour Party Details 2010 General Election Broadband Promises
13th April - UK Conservative Party Details 2010 General Election Broadband Pledges
14th April - UK LibDem Party Fails to Detail 2010 General Election Broadband Plans