subject: Are Broadband Speeds Achievable? [print this page] Reports into broadband speeds tend to disagree on what those speeds are, though they do agree that they're generally increasing - a recent one suggested that broadband speeds on average have increased by 25 percent - yet they all agree that the average speeds users experience are still some way of the headline speeds.
So are the broadband speeds you see advertised achievable? Or have providers set the headline speeds to high, and has advertising 20MB download speeds in big letters have set customer expectations too high?
According to the same report, average speed experienced by a broadband user overall is 5.2 Mibt/s, this is still some way off the headline speeds many providers like to boast.
Different speed packages have different averages with 8/10 Mibt/s DSL packages experiencing 3.3 Mibt/s on average whilst 20/24 Mibt/s DSL users experience speeds of around 6.5 Mibt/s.
Cable services experience better average sppeds with 10 Mibt/s packages averaging 8.7 Mibt/s and 20 Mibt/s averaging around 15.7 Mibt/s.
There is a massive gulf between speeds DSL users and cable users are experiencing suggests that tradition copper lines used with DSL packages can't handle high speed broadband and explaining the common differences experienced when customers are with, say, Virgin or Sky (only one of which uses cable).
Yet strangely providers are still advertising DSL packages at super fast speeds which the copper lines simply can't handle, leaving many customers expecting speeds which they're more than likely never going to achieve.
So it is unsurprising that one of the first providers to push forward cable and now fibre optic broadband average the fastest speeds out of all of the providers.
These companies came out really well in the Ofcom report achieving the fastest average speeds in both 8/10 Mibt/s, 20/24 Mibt/s and up to 50 Mibt/s , beating their closest rivals for the crown of fastest broadband by some margin.
Despite cable doing well the poor showing by other providers has led Ofcom to rethink its voluntary code of practice.
Users will now be able to switch broadband providers if they are unsatisfied with the speeds they are receiving can switch providers within three months of the new contract starting hassle and cost free.
This sounds great on paper but changing provider at the end of a contract is no easy feat so switching mid contract could prove to be problematic.
Cable seems to be the only company achieving anything near the advertised speeds and with talk of a 100Mb package in the near future other providers will have some serious catching up to do with their broadband deals.
With most providers still providing DSL packages which are struggling to reach the packages headline speeds, providers might have to rethink just how they advertise their products in the future.
Are broadband speeds as advertised achievable? Not just yet.
