The more you pay, the worse your broadband

THE more families pay for broadband the more likely they are to be disappointed, a study suggests.

Households are on average getting only 58 per cent of the download speeds they pay for, according to the research by consumer experts Which?

Those paying high fees for a ‘superfast’ 30 megabits per second (Mbps) service typically receive only 54 per cent of that speed.

But that percentage increased to 89 per cent for those billed for 10 to 30Mbps. Customers on cheap tariffs of 10Mbps or less were rewarded with 38 per cent faster downloads than expected.

Most of broadband traffic travels along copper wires slung from telephone poles – the further homes are from a telephone exchange the slower the service is.

Many other countries have invested in fibre optic networks that can handle vast quantities of data at high speed. A study this week put UK broadband speeds at 31st in a world table, behind countries such as Slovakia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Romania.

A huge increase in demand for streaming services, such as Netflix, has put extra pressure on the network. This means films and sport shows can slow down or fail at peak times, often the early evening.

The failure of the service is at odds with the soaring cost of broadband packages that can easily top £1,200 a year.

Families are being misled by the fact that broadband and pay TV companies are allowed to advertise high speed packages provided they are available to at least one in ten homes.

Which? said the research, which used data from Speed Checker from January to March, showed that ‘ far too many households are potentially getting slower internet speeds than they thought they had paid for’.

Alex Neill, managing director of home services at Which?, said: ‘People who think they have signed up for faster broadband speeds are the most likely to be disappointed, with our research showing many are generally getting speeds that are much slower than they expected.

‘Consumers need to regularly test their broadband speed to check they are getting the service they are paying for.

‘If they aren’t they should contact their provider so that any issues with their service can be resolved.’

A study published by the comparison website cable.co.uk found it took more than an hour to download an average movie in Britain, where broadband speeds average 16.51mbps.

In Singapore, which has the fastest internet worldwide at 55.3mbps, you could download the same film in 19 minutes.

‘Huge increase in demand’