Is Broadband In The UK Really THAT Bad?

According to figures for 2009 published by the Office for National Statistics, 63% of all British households have broadband Internet access – that’s an increase of 7% from 2008’s figures. We use the Internet for a wide variety of purposes – 64% of us buy goods and services online from ecommerce websites for example, some of us stream digital audio and video, while the rest of us enjoy online gaming through our games consoles and of course not forgetting casual browsing and emailing.

As one of the wealthiest countries in the world, you would expect the UK to have a superior telecommunications infrastructure, but alas this is not so.  Although more and more people are starting to benefit from fast broadband Internet speeds, advertised maximum speeds are seldom what we actually get when we go online – this means it takes us longer to do things online, which is bad news if for example your business relies heavily on Internet transactions (i.e. you mostly sell your products from your website).

By the end of 2008, OFCOM states in their 2009 International Communications Market Report that only a meagre 10% of broadband connections in the UK can actually get speeds higher than 8 Mbit/s.  By comparison, the highest of the sampled countries in that report is The Netherlands with 37% of all Dutch users able to receive higher speeds.

Advertised Vs Actual Speeds

The problem with broadband is that it can be a bit of a lottery when it comes to finding out what sort of speeds you are realistically going to get.  If you are based fairly near to your local exchange and your internal telephone wiring in your house/building is up to date and not old/damaged in any, you should be able to get a speed pretty close to your advertised maximum speed.

Here is an example of an advertised maximum 8 Mbit/s broadband connection on O2, about 790 metres away from the exchange (as the crow flies), tested at 10:36am today on the speedtest.net website:

The local router shows that the connection is synchronised to 8191 Kbit downstream and 1193 Kbit upstream (i.e. download and upload speeds, respectively). The BT Broadband Availability Checker also states a potential ADSL Max speed of 5Mb or greater so we are attaining the best broadband speed that we can possibly get.

Unfortunately, a lot of people only get a small fraction of the speeds shown above despite having good internal wiring and modern PCs and broadband routers, and being even closer to their local exchanges.

DIY Broadband Speed Improvements

Here are some steps you can take to improve your broadband speeds. Disclaimer: by attempting any of these steps, you are doing so at your own risk – if you aren’t sure what you’re doing, get someone to do these steps who does! Please note that some of these steps only apply to ADSL based broadband (i.e. not cable broadband through Virgin Media for example).

• Check your router settings are correct – you can get this information from your ISP, and your router’s manual will tell you how to check and change your settings. If your router has synched at a high speed make sure you do a speed test using a wired Ethernet connection to your router. If your router settings are correct, if possible use another known working router to rule out the possibility of a faulty router.

• If applicable, check that your wireless router is secure. You may find that the problem lies with your wireless Internet access being unsecure and thus your neighbours are enjoying fast broadband speeds at your expense. If your router supports it, use WPA2-AES security as this is currently the best wireless security protocol in use at the moment – if not use WPA-TKIP or WEP.

• Check your internal wiring – sometimes old or low quality wiring in your home or building may be affecting your ability to receive high broadband speeds.

• Additionally, the DSL ZoneUK website provides information on extra checks you can make on your phone socket.

• Check for line noise – the easiest way to do this is to plug a normal known working telephone (not wireless) into your master socket, pick up the handset and press a number on your keypad, and then listen carefully for any crackling noises – if you hear some noises and you are sure your phone is not faulty, you will need to call BT who will send an engineer out to fix this problem for you. Line noise can have a big impact on reliable fast broadband speeds, so to provide you with a reliable connection on a noisy line your router will sync at a much slower speed than you should be getting.

Bear in mind that during peak periods where Internet usage is high, some ISPs will “throttle” download speeds in order to provide the highest possible download speeds for all their users – check what your ISP’s policy is on this, as this varies between providers.

Alternative Broadband Services

If the above checks have failed to produce any significant improvements, you could possibly try switching to a better ISP – the ThinkBroadband website are an independent broadband news and information site that can help you to choose which ISP would suit your requirements.

There are also some other alternatives to standard ADSL broadband (in other words, broadband on your BT line) if you cannot get ADSL or the line quality is severely restrictive to receive a decent connection speed:

• Fibre Optic Broadband – traditional ADSL broadband is sent down a mix of copper and fibre optic lines, whereas with true fibre optic broadband you are able to receive broadband speeds higher than most maximum advertised ADSL connections. Fibre optic broadband is currently only supplied in the UK by Virgin Media, the highest speed they offer at the time of writing is 50 Mbit/s.

• Mobile Broadband – aimed at people on the go, this can also be useful if you live in a rural area that has a good mobile reception. Speeds won’t be anything to write home about, but in some cases may be better than what you get down your phone line. Mobile broadband is offered by all the major networks, with the highest speed currently offered at the time of writing by Vodafone at 7.2 Mbit/s.

• Satellite Broadband – this last-resort option is only really aimed at people who live out in the sticks that can’t get fixed line broadband or have little to no phone reception.  This works in a similar way to satellite television, in that you have a dish installed outside your home or building with a special modem connected to your computer (you will need to connect a wireless router to their modem if you want more than one computer to access the Internet either wirelessly or through Ethernet). There are a few providers in the UK for satellite broadband, one of which is Tariam who at the time of writing offer speeds of up to 3.6 MBit/s. Monthly subscription prices are fairly reasonable; however you are looking at a very high set up cost.

Next Generation Broadband – Plans And Criticisms

The government’s Digital Britain Report, announced in November 2009, sets out their plans to ensure the UK is at the leading edge of the global digital economy.  These plans include a £6 yearly “broadband tax” to part-fund the upgrade of the UK’s current telecommunications infrastructure so that everyone can benefit from a ‘universal’ minimum of 2 Mbit/s broadband.

The upgrade, known as the BT 21CN project, was set up to convert the UK’s current PSTN system to an IP system, and also includes other additional services such as on-demand interactive TV services.

According to BT’s 21CN website, they reached ‘key milestones’ in terms of broadband by stating that in March 2009 over 10 million homes and businesses in the UK are now enabled for ADSL2+ “next generation broadband” – thus increasing the footprint for their ADSL2+ service from 5% to 40% of the UK, with the rollout still continuing.

There have been some criticisms however with regards to the rollout of next generation broadband:

• The broadband tax has been met with criticism from within the telecommunications industry as it’s been calculated the money raised by the public for this scheme falls short of the total needed to roll out super-fast fibre broadband in the UK.

• ADSL2+ is limited to a maximum speed of 24 Mbit/s and will be outdated technology when the 21CN project is due to be completed in 2011. Critics argue that instead fibre optic cable should replace the existing copper cables between homes/buildings and their local exchanges to future proof the infrastructure and overcome the ADSL2+ speed limitations.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 17th, 2009 at 1:24 pm and is filed under Business, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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