Right to reply: Broadband speeds in UK- 8 key issues

While average broadband speed in the UK has risen by 10 percent in the past six months, there is an increasing gap between what customers get and what providers promise, Ofcom has said. Andrew Ferguson, co-founder of Thinkbroadband.com, looks at eight key issues that affect broadband in the UK.

1. Good to see average increasing, though this also most likely means the Digital Divide between first generation and the super-fast services is widening every faster.
2. The Ofcom report does acknowledge the fact that the ADSL and ADSL2+ services do suffer from issues like line length, but fails to show what this effect is. We would estimate that the physics that affect ADSL2+ mean only 25% are likely to get 11Mbps or faster, even on a perfect broadband provider.
3. While a revamp of the rules governing broadband speeds is long overdue, it is not clear whether the removal of ‘up to’ speeds to be replaced by a typical range will be vastly better. Consumers have had 10 years of getting used to ‘up to’ but alas the explanations have always been weak at the point of sale, if a consumer under the new regime has ISP A saying they will receive typically 3 to 6Mbps and ISP B saying 4 to 5Mbps, how will they decide? Even more confusing if the user is with ISP B and already getting 7Mbps. Comparisons to the APR used for credit cards and loans is not appropriate as this is a clear formula, and even in the financial sector people complain about not getting the typical APR.
4. Safe guards need to be put in place to avoid providers simply avoiding any mention of speed in their advertising i.e. using lifestyle, aspirational adverts. Additionally we may see providers being more selective in who they take as customers to avoid unduly lowering their typical speeds. A small number of providers already do some degree of customer selection based on line length estimates.
6. The impact of traffic management, which can be highly confusing for consumers is not covered in the report. It is believed that the Ofcom testing avoids test users who providers would consider heavy users, which may result in the full picture not being presented. Traffic management can operate in many different ways, Ofcom should be looking at some way of measuring the impact of this, as it can be crucial to how customers choose a provider.
7. The figure of 57% of the UK having access to super-fast broadband is a welcome number. Take-up of these services will now be critical to ensuring this figure rises quickly to something approaching the current ADSL coverage.
8. Any region of the UK that is looking at spending money to try and meet the Universal Service Commitment of 2Mbps for all by 2015, needs to look seriously at changing focus to ensure the money spent goes towards a super-fast service. With a UK average of 6.8Mbps in 2011, by 2015 a 2Mbps connection will feel like a dial-up connection did in 2010, in other words you can do things, but are severely limited in what is possible.
By Andrew Ferguson
Co-founder
www.Thinkbroadband.com