Broadband News

Cable leads broadband speeds

Garnet Roach garnet@consumerchoices.co.uk

With an average reliability of 50.5 per cent throughout August, cable broadband continues to be far more reliable than ADSL as a whole - which scored an average of only 38.8 per cent (02-09-08).

However, ADSL does have some good contenders, says Michael Phillips, BroadbandChoices.co.uk product director, such as O2 (www.O2.co.uk) which has consistently been at the top of the UK’s most popular 8Mb category throughout the summer.

In August, O2’s 8Mb customers received an average of 52.2 per cent of their advertised speed and its “super-fast” packages - the up to 16Mb and up to 20Mb - inched perilously close to its cable competitor Virgin Media (www.VirginMedia.com) with an average of 31.3 per cent, or 6.2Mb.

The UK’s cable provider held onto the top spot in both the Heavy Weight category with customers enjoying an average of 6.3Mb, and flew ahead in the up to 2Mb Welter Weight with customers receiving an average of 81.5 per cent of their advertised speed - compared to 78.8 per cent from nearest contender Orange (www.Orange.co.uk).

“O2 and Virgin Media are consistently delivering speeds of 6Mb or more on their ‘super-fast’ packages, and that’s great news for customers that need a bit more kick in their broadband connection,” said Phillips.

“However, 6Mb is still a far cry from the kind of speeds that would be offered by fibre connections and it will be interesting to see how Virgin Media’s 50Mb package performs when it’s launched later this year.”

Use our free broadband speed tester to see how your provider performs.