A new OFCOM report yesterday cast doubt on the broadband speeds available throughout the UK. This appears to be an ongoing issue whereby the maximum speeds advertised in the press and other areas of the media for many people bear no resemblance to the actual speeds they will receive. It appears that customers subscribing to 8 MB broadband are on average receiving just 3.6 MB which is less than half the advertised figure. As this particular speed range is the more popular in the UK (approximately 60% of subscribers) this has a particularly heavy influence on the standard and speed of UK broadband in general.
It will also come as no surprise to learn that broadband users in the North of England seem to be at a distinct disadvantage compared to their southern counterparts with the old “North-South divide” appearing to come into play. While we all know about the difference in speed regarding your distance from your local telephone exchange, etc, we appear to have reached a serious point of no return for the UK broadband business with tighter regulations seemingly required.
Quite how OFCOM can implement such a change while retaining the current pricing framework remains to be seen although this issue needs to be addressed as soon as possible before we move on to fibre-optic broadband services.