30% of homes fail to hit Digital Britain broadband target

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 28 Jul 2009 at 14:28

Three out of ten homes are failing to get an average broadband speed of at least 2Mbits/sec - the target figure set out in the Government's Digital Britain report.

Lord Carter's Digital Britain report claimed that 11% of British broadband lines would be unable to deliver a 2Mbits/sec service.

Ofcom's latest report into nationwide broadband speeds paints a much bleaker picture.

Ofcom says that 22% of households that participated in its tests "never received a speed of at least 2Mbits/sec during April 2009".

Three out of ten households received overall average speeds of below 2Mbits/sec while 36% fell below that speed during the peak evening hours of 8-10pm.

Ofcom claims its figures are roughly consistent with Digital Britain's, because once customers who don't have headline speeds of above 2Mbits/sec are discounted, only 11% failed to achieve 2Mbits/sec at some point.

However, that's rather painting over the cracks. Ofcom's study found that 19% of customers on an 8Mbits/sec connection were struggling on average speeds lower than 2Mbits/sec, proving that even when lines are theoretically capable of smashing past the Digital Britain minimum they often fail to do so.

Ofcom also notes that "some customers with a 2Mbits/sec service will have chosen that service having been advised that their line is incapable of delivering speeds in excess of 2Mbits/sec".

Headline target

A spokesperson for the Department of Business said Ofcom's findings don't contradict Lord Carter's earlier figures, because the Government's 2Mbits/sec target is based on the "up to" headline speeds, rather than the actual average speed of the line.

When asked whether that meant millions of people would still be on connections that were actually slower than 2Mbits/sec, the spokesman said: "That's part of what's going to have to be looked at".

"We may look at a service level agreement with the internet service providers [who receive Digital Britain funding] where they have to deliver a baseline 2Mbits/sec," the spokesperson added.