The communications regulator, Ofcom UK, has today published its latest research into the country's national average broadband ISP speeds. The study revealed that average fixed-line internet download performance had increased by 10% over the past six months and now stood at 6.8Mbps (Megabits per second), which is up from 6.2Mbps at the start of this year (here).

Sadly a huge gap still exists between what most ISPs are advertising to consumers and what is actually being delivered. The average advertised rate is now 15Mbps, which is an increase from 13.8Mbps in December 2010 and thus more than double what ISPs delivered to their customers.


The primary reason for this gap between advertised and real-world performance is the prevalence of 'up to' 24Mbps capable ADSL2+ broadband services, which dominate much of the existing BT and LLU copper line market. Unfortunately this type of technology, which is used by 75% of UK homes, is extremely susceptible to interference through poor home wiring and longer telephone lines. As a result many DSL connections get significantly less than is advertised.

Advertised Package Type - (Average actual speed)
'Up to' 20/24Mbps ADSL2+ packages (6.6Mbps)
'Up to' 30Mbps Virgin Media Cable services (31Mbps)
'Up to' 50Mbps Virgin Media Cable services (48Mbps)
'Up to' 40Mbps BT-Infinity ( FTTC ) services (34Mbps)

Ofcom notes that more than a third of customers (37%) on ADSL2+ based packages received average speeds of 4Mbps or less. The picture would of course by very different if Virgin Media's Cable Modem based network or BT's newest FTTC service dominated the UK market, with both being able to deliver speeds that are much closer to what the operator actually promotes.


Separately the research also found that the superfast BT-Infinity service ('up to' 40Mbps downloads and 10Mbps uploads) continued to provide the highest average upload speeds, which at nearly 9Mbps were more than twice as fast as any other ISP tested. Only Virgin Media's newest 100Mbps service has comparable upload speeds, although too few use this service for a fair comparison.

Ofcom's Voluntary Broadband Speeds Code of Practice (Version 2), which was announced last year (here), looks set to tackle some of the current problems after it finally came into force today. Member ISPs are required to explain to new customers the access line speed that they are likely to achieve at home, and to try to resolve any problems when speeds fall significantly below the estimate. If the problem cannot be resolved then customers will be able to leave their provider, without penalty, within the first three months of a contract.

Ofcom has also published a List of Member ISPs who signed up to the new Code, which happily appears to include the vast majority of mainstream providers. The regulator now plans to undertake a mystery shopping exercise in the next few months to assess compliance with its Code, which we look forward to seeing.

Separately the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is still consulting upon new guidelines for how ISPs advertise broadband speeds and "unlimited" style usage allowances (here). The outcome from this is expected sometime in the early autumn.


It's important to note that Ofcom's research looked at 14 packages provided by the seven largest ISPs in the market, which represent over 75% of residential broadband subscribers in the UK. Some 455 million separate performance tests were carried out in 1,767 homes during May 2011.

UPDATE 8:50am

The full report (PDF) can be found here:
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/telecoms-research/bbspeeds2011/bb-speeds-may2011.pdf

UPDATE 1:47pm

Here's a comment from UK ISP Eclipse Internet .