Household broadband speeds see a 10% increase this year claims survey

Things are looking up for high-speed internet users in the UK, according to new figures releases by industry watchdog Ofcom. It claims that the average UK broadband speed has improved, increasing by 10% this year alone.

The new report indicates that an increase of 6.2MB in November/December of 2010 has since been bypassed by a speed of 6.8MB in May of this year. Better still, it appears that neatly half of the UK’s residential broadband users were signed up to packages that were advertising speeds over 10MB compared to just 8% back in April of 2009.

The bad news is that Ofcom found a widening gap between advertised ‘up to’ speeds and the real thing. For example, it found that the average advertised speed in May this year was 15MB, which had crept up from the 13.8MB advertised just six months prior. In the generally upbeat report, Ofcom concluded that broadband performance is improving for most UK users.

Chief executive Ed Richards commented: "By publishing this research, Ofcom has encouraged ISPs to invest in faster broadband networks. We are now seeing consumers increasingly move to higher rated services and enjoying genuinely faster speeds.

"Consumers also have access to better broadband information, allowing them to decide which provider to use based on actual speeds they can achieve at home.

"However, the research is still telling us that some consumers are not receiving anywhere near the speeds that are being advertised by some ISPs.

"Ofcom continues to urge the CAP (Committee of Advertising Practice) and BCAP (Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice) committees to make changes to their advertising guidance so that consumers are able to make more informed decisions based on the adverts they see."