By Frank Jennings

UK communications industries regulator, Ofcom, has carried out tests which show that, while internet speeds have increased over the past year, “average download speeds remain well below the speeds which some [internet service providers] continue to advertise: the average download speed […] of 5.2Mbit/s compares to an average headline speed of 11.5Mbit/s, equivalent to 46% of the headline speed”

This is less than half of the average speed of the service that the consumer is paying for. And the gap between advertised and received speeds has more than doubled from 3 mbit/s to 6.3 mbit/s. On average, that’s just 46 per cent of the speed paid for, down from 58 per cent last year.

Globally the UK’s position does not look much better. It is probably no revelation that the three fastest countries in the world are South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan, in that order. In this speed league table compiled by internet delivery provider Akamai, the UK is ranked 27th out of 201 countries down from 23rd previously. Perhaps surprisingly, Latvia has stormed past the UK and is positioned nicely in 5th place. It’s not all bad though – the USA only ranks 22nd!

So, what’s happening to broadband in the UK? Virgin Media CEO, Neil Berkett, has attacked the other ISPs as “grossly misleading“ in the way they market internet speeds to consumers. He was able to do this because Virgin Media came out top in the Ofcom report, recording the strongest results being the only company which delivered more than 60% of headline speeds. BSkyB responded to this criticism with, “There is no end of talk from Virgin about its network but consumers are staying away in droves. Recent results show that Sky and BT together added almost 10 times as many broadband customers in the last quarter”. Moreover, Virgin fibre optic broadband is available to only 60% of the UK.

Users can obviously log on to a variety of sites to test their broadband speed and measure it up against what they are paying for. But Silicon.com columnist, Peter Cochrane, has identified a “very sharp practice” where ISPs appear to recognise speed-test applications and turn up the bit rate for the duration of the test, to appear to the naked eye, that they are operating as close to their advertised rates. Clever! But does broadband speed really matter? Do we not need to be just a bit more patient? Cochrane has devised a ten point answer to this question that he has described as “that same dumb question”. In essence, his arguments are that faster speeds can accelerate creativity and productivity, decrease the need to travel and reduce hardware and software costs and even spawn new communities, business opportunities and industries. And all this from faster internet access!

To empower users unhappy with their broadband speeds, Ofcom has announced a new code “to increase the overall standard of information on broadband speeds that should be made available to consumers to help them make more informed choices of service products offered in the broadband market”. This is a step in the right direction but it is voluntary and will take up to 12 months to come into force. A slow solution to slow speeds perhaps?

About the author

Frank Jennings is author at TomiLaw and specialises in technology law at DMH Stallard LLP.