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Home broadband delivers less than half advertised speeds

An industry study into home ADSL broadband and cable broadband download speeds has shown that, on average, ADSL broadband customers only get approximately 48% of the ADSL broadband performance claimed by providers in their promotion of ADSL home broadband speeds.

The research into ADSL broadband and cable home broadband packages was carried out between February and March of this year and examined the ADSL broadband and cable broadband connection speeds of 41,230 home broadband customers. The study compared the actual ADSL broadband and cable broadband speeds that customers were receiving against the maximum ADSL broadband and cable broadband speeds supposedly delivered by the broadband packages they were subscribed to.

Perhaps the most revealing insight into the ADSL broadband and cable broadband research was that the ADSL broadband and cable home broadband services advertising lower maximum broadband speeds delivered much nearer to the promised broadband capabilities.

In the 16Mb+ broadband category the average speed achieved by home broadband customers was 8.6Mb, which equates to just 45% of the capacity advertised by the broadband providers. In contrast to these ADSL broadband and cable broadband performance figures, customers signed up to 2Mb ADSL broadband and cable broadband packages achieved average broadband download speeds of 1.8Mb, which works out at a much more realistic 88% of the quoted maximum broadband speed. Home broadband customers on 8Mb ADSL broadband packages achieved 3.4Mb, which equates to 43% of the claimed ADSL broadband performance.

The broadband figures also varied significantly between the broadband providers depending on the broadband package, with Virgin's cable broadband service outperforming ADSL broadband packages.

In the 2Mb ADSL broadband and cable broadband category the best broadband results came from Virgin Media's cable broadband service, Talk Talk and UK Online, all of which achieved just over the claimed maximum 2Mb broadband speed.
The largest discrepancies appeared in the 8Mb ADSL broadband category where O2 and Be achieved 73% and 68% of their advertised broadband speeds, compared to just 26% for Toucan and 29% for both Virgin Media's ADSL broadband service and Eclipse's ADSL broadband service.

The fastest broadband speeds were achieved in the 16Mb+ category, where Virgin Media's cable broadband service produced an average of 10.4Mb, or 52% of the quoted 20Mb top broadband speed. The only other ISP to deliver over 50% of the advertised maximum ADSL broadband speed was UK Online, which managed to achieve 62% of the 16mb claimed top ADSL broadband speed, which is an average of 9.99Mb.

With such a huge variation in the performance of home broadband packages between broadband providers, it appears that the usual excuses of poor line quality or the customers' distance from their local exchange just might not be the case.


21/05/2008
Author: CompareBroadbandUK staff writer

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