Broadband News

BSG Broadband Report

(20-04-07) - “Internet networks will be too slow by 2012” warned a new report by the Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG) this week.

With neighbouring France Telecom introducing speeds of up to 100Mb, the UK broadband market is falling behind. The top speed available to UK homes is currently offered by Be Broadband (www.be.co.uk) at 24Mb, although Virgin Media (www.virginmedia.com) is set to increase its top speed to 20Mb and BT’s 21 Century Network is set to roll out next year with up to 24Mb broadband.

BSG also warned that competition in the UK broadband market could suffer if other ISPs didn’t work hard to bring their connections up to speed.

However, Chris Eagle, commercial manager at BroadbandChoices.co.uk said that broadband providers should be careful not to overstretch themselves in a bid to offer ever higher speeds. “Consumers do not want a connection with a high top speed that’s actually unrealistic, has performance problems and sub standard customer service.

“While speeds of up to 100Mb allow users to do so much more with the internet, such as watch high-definition TV over broadband, ISPs need to be careful that the service problems faced by the UK broadband market in the past few years do not continue, as most customers would gladly swap high speeds for a more reliable service,” he said.

But there are ways of speeding up your broadband without switching to a new package. Read our article on Boost your Internet Speed to find out how.