Ofcom’s latest research into broadband speeds

One of the most noteworthy of these is that broadband customers on local loop unbundled (LLU) lines – where the ISP has put its own equipment in the telephone exchange – are generally on much faster connections than those with connections delivered by BT Wholesale.

The graph below shows the difference in speed is particularly marked during the peak daytime and evening hours (click on graph to enlarge):

Ofcom says: “this slowdown during peak periods is the result of contention on the network as multiple users share the same backhaul bandwidth. The faster average speeds delivered by LLU operators are likely to be a reflection of the lower cost per unit of backhaul capacity for operators using their own network compared to the cost of renting capacity from wholesale suppliers (such as BT Wholesale or Cable & Wireless).”

O2 is top dog among the LLU providers, delivering “significantly faster speeds” than TalkTalk, Tiscali and AOL. You may also remember from yesterday’s figures that O2 was the only ISP whose peak time speeds were no lower its off-peak: unlike BT, which saw its peak-time speeds drop by almost 20%.

Remember that many ISPs – including O2 – have customers on both LLU and wholesale lines (or ‘on-net’ and ‘off-net’), so if you’re planning to defect from a wholesale provider, make sure you’re not just signing up for more of the same.

The answer, according to those lovely folks over at BT and TalkTalk, appears to be “as difficult as we can possibly make it without sticking two fingers up and suggesting yoghurt pots and a piece of string”.

Here’s the deal: the current TalkTalk line is in the process of being transferred to the previous tenant’s new address, but I’ve been told that’ll take a whopping four weeks (starting, bizarrely, from a week after I moved in). Both TalkTalk and BT have insisted I cannot do anything with the perfectly good phone line in my house until after that point – despite the fact that it’s currently taking and making no calls. It’s effectively useless.

Even worse, though, is that both companies then proceeded to fight to not have to take my custom. TalkTalk insisted the line would automatically revert to BT after that, and they could no longer help me – odd seeing as most of their new customers are switched over from BT lines. BT countered by saying the line was now TalkTalk’s property, and I’d have to stump up £125 to get it switched back over.

Faced with the not wholly attractive prospect of waiting four weeks to find I have no line at all, I gave up on the both of them.

Five minutes later, I got off the phone to Virgin Media. My broadband is already activated, I can install it myself and I’ll be online (with a far more reliable connection than ADSL, I’d imagine) in days. Now if only they still showed Sky One…