Ofcom Says, Broadband Speeds in UK Increasing, Though Non-metropolitan Regions Are As Yet Slow

With details from 572 million speed tests that have been performed on 13 of the largest providers of Internet Services in the UK and the regulatory authority Ofcom have come to the conclusion that though the average speeds of 6.2 Mbps have minimally increased to 7.6 Mbps in November 2011, it was not much of a hike. However it definitely was a one step to getting faster speeds. Recently Ofcom has been ticking off the Internet Service Providers and pinning them down to the advertisements that assert terrific speeds that are not offered and do not have the speeds to watch a standard YouTube film. It feels that the cause for this general hike in speeds was due to the fact that many of the users were moving on to the high speed deals like the packages provided by Virgin Media, as a consequence of which people prefer to subscribe for packaged deals that promote a minimum speed of 10Mbps. However for those people living in the more remote regions, even this cannot be availed of. Currently they are able to access download speed of 3.3 Mbps which constitutes only half of the average speeds. It always happens that people living on the country-side are worst hit when it is a question of net speed, because the further away you stay from an exchange the less the download speeds would be. Ofcom had been having debates with BT as well as some other providers regarding the changes to e made that will ensure that quicker and more inexpensive broadband will be provided in the rural regions. This is a part of the government’s plans to assist business firms even in the countryside to thrive. The advent of the 4G would also be a great help in allowing the farmers to avail of faster Internet speeds, though it does not look like it would happen in the near future. As per the Ofcom’s conditions regarding speeds, if a user has been promised up to 8Mbps speeds in this subscription for a package, he should obtain a minimum speed of 6Mbps at least. Ofcom states that one’s ISP should inform him about the speed they can expect and if he is unable to get that speed, the user has the option of getting out of the contract. However if you are one of those lucky subscribers to the Virgin Media, their up to 50Mbps package offers download speeds of 49Mbps. The Executive Director of Virgin Media, Jon James stated that it was great to note that the broadband in Britain was going on the right path. In spite of the fact that these statistics do not reveal a fantastic hike in speeds, it is nice to see that optimism is abundantly apparent. Since BT and Virgin Media have been pumping huge amounts into the quicker fibre optic technology, everybody is eagerly anticipating better figures the coming year.