Faster USENET access is one the rise as UK residential broadband average speeds have increased by 1.4 meg to 9.0 meg according to speed research conducted by Ofcom. The increased speeds recorded in May 2012 show an 18% increase on the 7.6 meg recorded in November 2011, the majority of this being either consumers choosing faster packages, or ISPs migrating users on to faster speed broadband.
The communications watchdog, OfCom, tests speeds every six months, with the latest report revealing the largest leap in average speeds since it started keeping track four years ago, up by 1.1Mbits/sec over the past six months
Ofcom’s research now includes some new ‘superfast’ packages, including Virgin Media’s ‘up to’ 60Mbit/s service and BT’s Infinity 2 ‘up to’ 76Mbit/s service, the launches of which have contributed to the rise in average speeds. The continuing trend of increasing speeds recorded in the research confirms that consumer migration to faster services is gathering momentum.
While some consumers actively choose to upgrade to superfast broadband packages to achieve higher speeds, many are benefitting from improved speeds as a result of internet service providers’ (ISPs’) network upgrades, at little or no additional cost to consumers.
Ofcom said work by BT and Virgin Media to upgrade their networks had led to to a “noticeable overall improvement” in speeds.
Of the 12 ISP packages included in the report, Virgin Media’s 100Mbit/s service was the fastest with the study finding average actual speeds of 88.3Mbit/s over a 24-hour period.
BT Infinity’s 76Mbit/s service delivered the highest upload speeds of all the packages, averaging 15.6Mbit/s.
The report is the seventh by Ofcom into residential fixed-line broadband speeds and is designed to help consumers choose between ISPs.
The report is the seventh by Ofcom into residential fixed-line broadband speeds and is designed to help consumers choose between ISPs.
