Report reveals abominable state of British broadband

42.3% of connections slower than 2Mbps

25 November 2008 16:39 GMT / By Katie Scott

The Office of National Statistics has shamed broadband service providers with its latest report.

According to its survey, a whopping 42.3% of broadband connections are slower than 2Mbps.

This is despite Ofcom claiming last year that, "the average headline speed has doubled in a year to reach 4.6Mbps".

The ONS adds, worryingly, that its stats are based on the connection's headline speed, not actual throughput, which could mean that a lot of British broadband connections are below 2Mbps if you were to measure actual speeds.

In separate news, Ofcom has released a report which says that there's not many of us out there who actually know what our broadband speeds are supposed to be.

"The proportion of broadband customers unaware of their connection speeds has continued to grow - 55% were unaware of their connection speed (actual speed)", says the report.

But despite this, 20% of us aren't happy about the speeds we're getting.

And apparently the press is making the situation worse: "Press coverage about advertised maximum or headline speeds differing from actual speeds may have increased the confusion", the report stated.

Naughty us!

Full tags

Software, Online, Broadband, Statistics