UK web users content with real broadband speeds

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The majority of UK internet users are happy with the speed of their broadband connection, a new survey has revealed - but it's not a big majority.

The latest monthly poll from broadband market analyst ISPreview took the temperature of 957 respondents on their level of satisfaction with the 'real world' internet speeds they were getting, and 56 per cent responded saying that they were happy with the speed of their connection, while 44 per cent claimed they were unhappy.

The actual speed of a broadband connection is typically considerably less than the ISP's advertised speed because of interference caused by poor wiring, bandwidth throttling and limitations on how fast networking equipment can actually handle data. ISPs are regularly criticised for not making this clear when quoting connection speeds – in a recent Ofcom survey, 74 per cent of respondents said their ISP hadn't mentioned that the actual speed they would receive would likely be slower than the advertised maximum.

Of the respondents, the majority (59 per cent) reported their connection's advertised speed as being 8Mbps, while a quarter had opted for connections claiming to offer speeds of 16 to 24Mbps.

In a press release announcing the results of the survey, ISPreview editor Mark Jackson said more needed to be done to give consumers an accurate picture of the real-world speeds they could typically expect.

“Dissatisfaction with real-world broadband speeds is nothing new,” Jackson said. “Part of the problem stems from the fact that existing broadband services are complicated, with speed being negatively impacted by many factors such as the length of your telephone line, electrical interference and poor home wiring."

He added: “Providers must also take some of the blame for failing to deliver on what they promise.”

In terms of how much data is being consumed, a surprising 41 per cent of respondents reported racking up more than 30GB in downloads a month, 12 per cent consumed 20-30GB and 19 per cent used 10-20GB a month.

The future of the UK's broadband infrastructure has been a key campaign point in the run-up to the general election. Labour has pledged that 90 per cent of the UK will have super-fast broadband – in other words, 24Mbps or more – by 2017, and 100 per cent coverage by 2020.

It planned to achieve this through the much-debated 'broadband tax', a 50 pence-per-month levy on all household landlines. However, the proposed tax was dropped from the Finance Bill at the 11th hour last week.

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