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BroadbandChoices Speed Test Awards 2007
In December 2007, BroadbandChoices embarked on a project to evaluate the products on offer from all major ISPs. Speed was the focal point of the study, with both reliability and consistency of service taken into account also. Gold, silver and bronze awards were handed out across three bandwidth divisions: Heavy Weight, Cruiser Weight and Welter Weight.
Divisions and Data Collection
• Heavy Weight - Any providers offering up to 16Mb, 20Mb or 24Mb services
• Cruiser Weight - All providers offering up to 8Mb services (excluding Welter Weights).
• Welter Weight - All providers offering up to 2Mb services.
The average speed that ISPs were delivering to their customers was monitored from August to December 2007. Over that period, 375,000 individual test results across 8000 different internet users were collated.
The results show the average speed delivered by each ISP in megabytes per second (Mbps).
The gold in the Heavy Weight category went to Virgin Media, although none of the gold medallists actually delivered anywhere near their advertised speeds. Michael Phillips, Product Director at BroadbandChoices, had the following to say:
“This really does call for providers to be more honest about the kind of speeds customers can realistically expect to receive, rather than using flashy advertising focused on ever-increasing ‘top speeds’.”
Sky scored gold in the Cruiser Weight division, and was named the broadband supplier that gave the most consistent speeds to its customers across all three weight categories. Bubbling under at this level was Tiscali, TalkTalk and Toucan.
Virgin Media claimed a second gold in the 2Mb and under category, with Tiscali just missing out on bronze. Tesco brought up the rear with an average speed of 1.05 Mbps.
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