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We Tested, You Reacted
(12-03-08) - Monday’s publishing of the BroadbandChoices.co.uk monthly speed test league table prompted a deluge of responses from broadband users up and down the country.
The results prompted many of you to write in and talk to us about your ISP's performance.
Jeff, an AOL customer, noticed his speed ‘dropping from 4Mb to 1Mb throughout the day’, while Peter, a Madasafish(www.madasafish.com) customer who lives less than a mile from his local exchange, described speeds of ‘1.31Mb from a promised 5Mb package’. Mick, a recent convert to TalkTalk(www.talktalk.co.uk), was 'instantly regretting' his decision, recording a 2.1Mb speed for an 8Mb service.
A number of mails complained of a reduced service from Tiscali (www.tiscali.co.uk) following their LLU rollout. Gareth, a Tiscali stalwart of four years, was delighted with his service until Tiscali ‘took control of the local loop’. On a 2Mb tariff, Gareth then began to receive speeds of ‘just 672Kb’.
Another common complaint was from BT broadband(www.bt.com) customers, who all felt that BT’s party line of ‘you’re too far from the exchange’ was an unsatisfactory excuse for their slow download speeds. Jeanette, a BT Option 1 customer, told us that she’s tired of being ‘fobbed off’ by BT customer service staff, while both Fred (0.8 Mb from an 8MB connection) and Brian (512Kb from a 2Mb connection) wondered if switching to another ISP would improve their chances of faster download speeds.
It’s not all doom and gloom however. Anthony and Ruth wrote in to tell us how pleased they are with Virgin Media’s download speeds and customer service, and Neve told us how she’s ‘much happier’ with her Be(www.bethere.co.uk) connection since ‘BT came in and sorted out our local exchange’. Shabana gave Sky(www.sky.com) the thumbs up, describing how her 8Mb connection ‘is known to exceed 8Mb at times’.
Michael Phillips, BroadbandChoices.co.uk Product Director, is delighted with your responses, and wants you to keep sending them in:
‘Our speed test league table for February prompted an almighty response and I thank you all for taking the time to write in. Clearly there are a lot of happy, disgruntled and indifferent broadband customers out there, and you all want to have your say. We’re working on making the site more interactive, with greater opportunities for our readers to talk to us at BroadbandChoices and communicate with each other, so keep checking back and stay vocal.’
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