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Average UK broadband speed under 3 Mb
BROADBAND users all over the UK
have been testing their speeds and as a result of the 18,558 tests
carried out in January 2008 on broadband comparison site Broadband-Expert.co.uk,
the average speed in the UK is a pitiful 2.95Mb.
The results varied enormously with the lowest download speed being
1.72Mb from Tiscali, through to the highest average of 6.07Mb with
Be broadband. Download speed describes the rate at which a computer
downloads information from the internet like emails, web pages,
music and video. The higher download speeds of Be, who also
provide the technology behind O2’s broadband service, is partially
due to the ADSL2+ technology which allows much greater speeds to be
achieved. Most providers currently provide their broadband
connections through the more traditional ADSL technology.
“Despite ongoing pressure from Ofcom and various consumer
groups, broadband providers are still misleading the public over
broadband speeds. Current advertising campaigns like
the one for Tiscali broadband promise superfast broadband (download)
speeds of up to 8Mb. Yet Tiscali came bottom of our test results
with an average actual download speed of just 1.72Mb. Now that is
not superfast by any stretch of the imagination and is over 1Mb
lower than the UK average.” said William Harvey, Broadband-Expert.co.uk
Technical Director.
The average upload speed was clocked at 296Kbs or 0.296Mb. Upload
speed is the rate that data is transferred from a computer to the
internet and is very important for online gaming, uploading photos
to sites like Facebook sending large email attachments, and other
activities which transmit information back to the internet from a
PC. Upload speeds varied greatly between providers too with Be
broadband achieving the fastest average upload speeds of 850Kbs and
Orange the slowest at 219Kbs.
“Broadband providers can confuse consumers by stating maximum
broadband speeds that are often only achieved by a very small
percentage of subscribers. Providers should state the average
download and upload speeds achieved by their broadband subscribers,
this would give consumers a better idea of the sort of speeds they
are likely to receive and would encourage providers to deliver
better broadband products”.
Each month Broadband-Expert.co.uk stores all of the results from the
tests and the results of the fastest speeds by providers vary
enormously. The highest recorded speed in January 2008 was 23.15Mb
from a Be broadband customer down to only 5.99Mb for the fastest
Eclipse customer!
“Our recent results, in terms of speed, show that the
providers with ADSL2+ technology provide by far the highest speeds.”
For the results of the speed test follow the link and click on the
‘Speed Test Results’ tab towards the bottom of the web
page on:-
broadband-expert.co.uk
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NATIONWIDE AND HERITAGE LOTTERY FUND LAUNCH NATIONAL SEARCH FOR
LOCAL HEROES...
NATIONWIDE
Building Society has teamed up with the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF)
to launch the Nationwide Community and Heritage Awards 2008,
inviting the public to nominate people or groups who deserve
recognition for community or voluntary work that has made a real
difference to people's lives.
Nominations for the very best and most inspirational volunteers in
the UK can be made from today, for either:-
* Community Champion - recognition for those who have made an impact
in their local community.
* Heritage Hero -
recognition for those who have volunteered to become involved in
saving a part of their heritage and sharing it with others.
The awards were previously known as the Nationwide Awards for
Voluntary Endeavour (NAVE) and had a very successful ten year
history recognising over 13,000 people from across the country. The
new Nationwide and HLF partnership will enable more unsung heroes to
be recognised for their tremendous efforts as volunteers.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said:- "Volunteers make a
difference every day to life in our communities and they are hugely
important to the nation as a whole. These awards will celebrate the
contribution of those everyday heroes who do so much for our
national life and I congratulate them all for what they have done."
Michelle Leighton, Nationwide's community & environmental affairs
manager, said:- "Nationwide is immensely proud of the strong
links it has with local communities. There are many people who
volunteer their time on a regular basis to help support others. If
you know of anyone who deserves recognition for their volunteering
please make sure you nominate them. Together with the Heritage
Lottery Fund we want to celebrate the efforts of these dedicated
volunteers whilst widening the scope of these already successful
awards."
Stephen Boyce, HLF's deputy director of operations, said:-
"Volunteers are particularly vital to the heritage sector and well
over half of the 26,000 projects we have supported just could not
have happened without them. Our research tells us that in just two
years we funded projects involving 75,000 volunteers, who together
gave over one million hours of their time to the UK's heritage."
2007's winner of the individual adult award, Jane Plumb, said:-
"I was delighted to be chosen as the overall winner. As chairman
of the Group B Strep Support charity I spend much of my time
counselling pregnant women and families who are affected by Group B
Streptococcal infection. We now have over 600 members so the money I
have been awarded will go a long way to helping even more families
and to increase the current levels of support further."
Start nominating now:- Nomination forms can be found online at
nationwide.co.uk and
hlf.org.uk. Leaflets and
nomination forms will be available from Monday 25 February 2008 from
local Nationwide Building Society branches, HLF outlets, public
libraries and via local newspapers. The closing date for
nominations is Monday 28 April 2008. A series of regional
events for short-listed nominations will be taking place up and down
the country at a variety of heritage venues. The final will take
place in London during November 2008. |
