Broadband not up to speed
August 23, 2010 at 4:17 pm
Despite the fact that consumers are paying up to £30 per month for their broadband, a service that has recently been described as an everyday essential, a recent report by Ofcom has suggested that customers are reportedly receiving less than half of the speed they are paying for.
Discussing the report’s findings, Ofcom chief executive, Ed Richards, argued that “it’s very easy to go out and find out what the price of broadband is, but much more difficult to get a good understanding of what the observed speeds are likely to be”, which suggests that broadband providers are taking advantage of customer naivety.
One of the main reasons for this naivety is that, at present, customers are offered broadband services that promise speeds ‘up to’ those advertised. With broadband services affected by a range of factors, including how far customers live from the local telephone exchange, the extent of consumers’ downloading, as well as the time that the customer is using the internet, it is little wonder that actual speeds differ so much.
Despite the report painting several major broadband suppliers in a negative light, the report did suggest that Virgin Media currently provide the fastest service to consumers, although BT, who ranked lower in Ofcom’s report, have challenged the validity of the report, suggesting that (amongst other things) the sample size of respondents was too small.
One of the few positives to come out of the report for consumers was the news that overall broadband speeds are increasing, with consumers having seen speeds in May 2010 increased to 5.2 Mbit/s, up from 4.1 megabits per second (Mbit/s) in April 2009.
3 voted best mobile broadband provider in the UK
August 13, 2010 at 2:32 pm
A recent survey by YouGov, the research and marketing group, has revealed that consumers deem 3Mobile to be the best mobile broadband provider in the UK.
Despite already undertaking an expansion that has seen 3Mobile extend its network from 7,500 sites at the end of 2008 to more than 11,400 (a figure that is likely to rise to 12,500 by the end of the year), 3Mobile has further enhanced its UK coverage, proving that the provider has not been neglecting its existing customers.
After asking more than 2,000 mobile broadband consumers to rank mobile broadband providers in 12 categories, 3Mobile outperformed Vodafone, Orange, O2, and T-Mobile to finish top in 10 out of 12 service quality categories, and was rated as best for billing, customer reliability and quality of service.
Those surveyed pinpointed the fact that 3Mobile offers the fastest download speeds, the most reliable network and the best customer service, and it appears that customer satisfaction of those using 3Mobile as their mobile broadband provider is reaching levels the company can truly be proud of.
This view also seems to be held by the network itself, with Joe Parker, Director at 3Mobile Broadband, suggesting the result was a “customer endorsement of the massive investment we have put into our network over the past two years, and the speed at which this programme is developing. The network continues to grow in reach, speed and capacity.”
With 3Mobile’s current share of the UK’s mobile broadband market sitting at 35%, Mr Parker and 3Mobile Broadband will be hoping that widespread reporting of this news sees their share of the market increase even further.
UK government delays ‘Broadband Britain’ until 2015
August 5, 2010 at 1:33 pm
As the UK coalition government continues to look to make spending cuts, it has been announced that the previous government’s commitment to provide a universal 2mbps broadband connection has been deferred from 2012 to 2015.
Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary, made the announcement at an event organised to help identify solutions to Britain’s broadband coverage problems. Mr Hunt announced to a gathering of telecoms operators that the current government have set themselves "a more realistic target of achieving universal 2Mbps access within the lifetime of this parliament”.
The announcement drew stinging criticism from Sebastien Lahtinen of telecoms site Thinkbroadband.com, who described Hunt’s move as a “significant setback for rural broadband users”. Current estimates suggest that almost 160,000 rural and remote households still have no access to a broadband speed internet connection, despite broadband services being launched 10 years ago.
Although recent figures suggest that approximately 99 per cent of the UK has access to broadband at a speed of at least 512kbps, the 2mbps connection speed target would have provided all users with access to next-generation services, such as BBC iPlayer.
The underlying impression given by the culture secretary is a move away from government targets and a step towards encouraging the private sector to offer faster speeds as well as a desire to help communities set up their own services. This can be highlighted effectively by Mr Hunt’s insistence that the UK would be able to achieve universal broadband speeds of 2mbps and faster if companies put down cables whilst other utilities such as sewers and roads are being excavated.
