Britain's fastest ADSL provider? Ofcom still doesn't know

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 27 Jul 2009 at 18:11

Despite performing 60 million speed tests over the course of six months, Ofcom admits it still doesn't know who Britain's fastest ADSL broadband provider is.

30% of homes fail to hit Digital Britain broadband target

Ofcom teamed up with SamKnows Broadband to put specially adapted routers into more than 1,600 homes across the country, carrying out detailed performance tests between November 2008 and April 2009.

The study found that Virgin Media's "up to 10Mbits/sec" cable service was streets ahead of "up to 8 Mbits/sec" ADSL, recording average download speeds of between 8.1 and 8.7Mbits/sec.

Yet, despite collecting a wealth of data, Ofcom doesn't have the statistical confidence to proclaim whether five of the country's biggest ADSL providers - O2, Orange, PlusNet, Sky or TalkTalk - are any better or worse than one other.

The data leaves the half of Britons who can't get Virgin Media practically none-the-wiser when it comes to choosing the best performing ISP.

What is abundantly clear, however, is that we are not getting anywhere near the broadband speed we pay for. The average recorded broadband speed in the UK is only 4.1Mbits/sec, compared to an average headline speed of 7.1Mbits/sec. That average speed drops during peak hours (8-10pm) to 3.7Mbits/sec.

Click here to find out why ISPs won't be forced to reveal their true speeds

The Ofcom report does at least identify who are the worst performing ISPs among Britain's big nine. AOL and Tiscali come bottom of the pile, both failing to achieve average download speeds above 3.9Mbits/sec - less than half the advertised headline speed.

BT, meanwhile, is only statistically faster than Tiscali, leaving it languishing near the foot of the table.

The research also leaves BT with some serious questions to answer over its peak time performance. The research showed that BT's average speed of 3.8-4.2Mbits/sec slumped to 3.1-3.5Mbits/sec during the peak hours of 8-10pm, falling further than any of its rivals.

Ofcom's strategy and marketing development partner, Peter Phillips, says the regulator is "not trying to draw conclusions on why these [speed] differences are happening".

However, he admitted that "some companies are investing more in backhaul capacity than others," and that those who "invest more in backhaul are delivering better performance".

Ofcom survey results

ISP/Average speed (peak hours speed)

AOL - 3.3 to 3.9Mbits/sec (2.8 to 3.4Mbits/sec)
BT - 3.8 to 4.2Mbits/sec (3.1 to 3.5Mbtis/sec)
O2 - 4.1 to 5.1Mbits/sec (4.1 to 5.1Mbits/sec)
Orange - 3.8 to 4.5Mbits/sec (3.3 to 3.9Mbits/sec)
PlusNet - 3.8 to 4.9Mbits/sec (3.7 to 4.7Mbits/sec)
Sky - 4.0 to 4.7Mbits/sec (3.7 to 4.4Mbits/sec)
TalkTalk - 3.8 to 4.6Mbits/sec (3.7 to 4.5Mbits/sec)
Tiscali - 3.2 to 3.7Mbits/sec (2.5 to 3.0Mbits/sec)
Virgin Media - 8.1 to 8.7Mbits (7.5 to 8.2Mbits/sec)

*All results based on lines with headline speed of 8Mbits/sec, except for Virgin Media which is based on headline speed of 10Mbits/sec