According to Ofcom, national broadband speeds have risen by 22 per cent when compared to last year’s performance.
Previously average speeds reached 6.8Mbps and this has now grown to 7.6Mbps over the last 12 months.
Broadbandwatcher would like to remind you that other calculators have come up with different averages over the years, some showing that UK speeds were higher (or indeed lower) than these published by Ofcom yesterday.
In other perhaps more obvious news, it has been established that the huge gap between advertised speeds and real-life ones is still “significant”, as the promoted average is 16.3Mbps at the moment which is more than twice as high than the actual figure.
The graph below sings the song perfectly:
In terms of fibre, the gap between advertised and real is practically non-existent if compared to ADSL up to 24Mbps. FTTC services promise to deliver up to 40Mbps whereas they deliver 38Mbps – not too shabby.
Ofcom’s Chief Executive, Ed Richards, said in a statement:
“We can look forward to further increases in UK broadband speeds over the next few years. Most households in the UK can now access superfast broadband services, and these services are set to get faster still as Virgin Media aims to double the speeds of most of its cable services and BT aims to double the speed of its fibre-to-the-cabinet service from 40Mbps to 80Mbps.”
As a quick reminder, ASA has decided to put together a new set of rules when it comes to advertising to minimise the amount of misleading broadband advertising out there.
However, if the future lies within fibre, customers can exhale with ease as according to the findings, real-life speeds are pretty close to those we see plastered on billboards.
There is another big gap, that is the haves and the have-nots, the have-nots get no percentage increase whatsoever. Luckily Ofcom can boast about speed increase because we also have the ‘haves’ in the UK.
BT Openreach show great skills with their roll-out. Meanwhile for the less than 24 percent of UK Government concern, skill does not come into it. Funding restrictions and favourites do.