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Virgin Media takes the top spot
(06-11-07) - Tesco has been pushed out of top place in our latest Speed Tester results for October, with Virgin Media taking the lead after months in second and third place.
The Cable broadband provider, which is expected to announce a reduction in customer losses in its third quarter results tomorrow, improved its speed by 4.6 per cent over the past month. Virgin Media (www.VirginMedia.com) customer’s enjoyed an average of 52.1 per cent of their advertised top speed last month.
Virgin Media’s 4.6 per cent climb was the biggest across the board, but while customers on its 2Mb and 4Mb packages received an impressive 75.1 per cent and 76.8 per cent of their promised speeds, this figure dropped to only 38.2 per cent for those on the “super-fast” 20Mb XL package.
Michael Phillips, BroadbandChoices.co.uk product director, said: “XL customers who have a top advertised speed of 20Mb actually received an average of only 7.6Mb - for which they pay £37 a month.
“Although 38.2 per cent for the XL package is still good in comparison to many ADSL providers, the big disparity between speeds advertised as ‘super-fast’ and the actual speed enjoyed can be seen across other high-speed broadband providers. For example, Sky’s 16Mb customers received only a disappointing 4.6Mb in October.
“In many cases customers should think about whether or not they actually need their expensive ‘super-fast’ package, or whether they should switch to a cheaper, slower package that might deliver only slightly slower speeds,” he advised.
Cable continued to lead ADSL in terms of speed reliability with customers enjoying an average of 52.1 per cent of their advertised speed compared to only 37.7 per cent for ADSL providers.
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