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UK broadband needs to improve its quality and speeds – Broadband Research

Gavaz — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 06:21:35 +0000

The UK broadband providers are lagging behind their counter-parts in other broadband developed nations like Japan, South Korea, Sweden and Netherlands in terms of broadband speeds, according to the research conducted by the University of Oxford’s Said Business School.

Some of the online activities like streaming & downloading videos, file sharing require faster speeds, however, the average broadband speeds available in the UK are pretty lower than what is required, the research shows. As for the broadband performance, Japan was placed in first position while the UK, Australia, Italy and Spain are a few broadband developed nations that are yet to improve their standings in terms of speeds and performance.

This research, funded by New Cisco Systems used the speeds results from speedtest.net and broadband network in these nations were tested more than 8 million times. Japan topped the table with an average speed of 16Mbps while Sweden was placed in second position with 9Mbps. Russia, which is placed in 10th position offered broadband services of average speed 6Mbps. As for the broadband service quality or performance, Japan again leads other nations while Sweden, Romania, Netherlands and Germany could find a place in the list of top ten nations.

Alastair Nicholson, a member of the research team from the University of Oxford’s Said Business School spoke to the Guardian:

“Average download speeds are adequate for web browsing, email and basic video downloading and streaming, but we are seeing more interactive applications, more user-generated content being uploaded and shared, and an increasing amount of high-quality video services becoming available,”

“Moreover, because the study also found significant correlation between a nation’s broadband quality and its advancement as a knowledge economy, policy makers may need to consider how to create an environment to improve key broadband performance parameters in the future.”

In the UK, the average broadband speeds are yet to improve to match the standards in nations like Japan, Sweden, or Germany where fibre based, cheap unlimited broadband networks provide faster broadband connections to the growing broadband population. While Virgin Media, the cable broadband provider has planned to launch its 50Mbps service nationwide by the year end, BT has recently revealed its investments plans to deploy fibre broadband network in the UK to provide 100Mbps broadband service to more than 10 million households in the next four years.

Virgin Media is to launch trials with new traffic management policies

broadband analyst — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:15:28 +0000

The cable broadband provider, Virgin Media is to bring further changes in its traffic management polices that will affect the customers of its three broadband products â€“ broadband M, broadband L and broadband XL. The earlier traffic management policy announced by Virgin Media was taking into account just the downloads made during the peak hours, between 4pm and 9pm. However, the latest policy which will be on trial period and will apply only to the selected locations like Preston, Wigan, Blackpool, Camden, Dalston, Enfield and Haringey, will have additional time for traffic management in two segments when the uploading and downloading of its customers will be monitored.

It has also been made clear that the usage during the different time periods will be treated separately and the customers have strictly adhere to the upload limit and download limit specified for the specific time period. The new traffic policy has also pointed out how much speed will slip when the customers are found to breach the download limit during these hours.

Out of three time segments, the time period between 3pm and 8pm will have the monitoring of the uploads on the lines.

Broadband M
10am – 3pm: Download 900 MB.
4pm – 9pm:Â Download 450 MB
3pm – 8pm:Â Upload 200 MB
Resultant speeds due to Traffic Shaping:Â DownloadÂ 1 Mbps and Upload speeds 128 Kbps.

Broadband L
10am – 3pm: Download 2400 MB.
4pm – 9pm:Â Download 1600 MB
3pm – 8pm:Â Upload 700 MB
Resultant speeds due to Traffic Shaping:Â DownloadÂ 1 Mbps and Upload speeds 128 Kbps.

Broadband XL
10am – 3pm: Download 6000 MB.
4pm – 9pm:Â Download 3000 MB
3pm – 8pm:Â Upload 1400 MB
Resultant speeds due to Traffic Shaping:Â DownloadÂ 5 Mbps and Upload speeds 192 Kbps.

O2 gives apology for low mobile broadband speeds

Gavaz — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:50:23 +0000

O2 broadband provider has clarified in a statement released recently that its mobile broadband customers could get speeds up to 1.3 Mbps depending on the mobile devices used. What we perceive from its statement that most of O2 mobile broadband users are getting speeds well above 384 Kbps even with devices use mobile technologies other than the latest HSDPA (3.5 G). Since O2 mobile broadband is compatible with HSDPA technology, users can achieve speeds higher than 1 Mbps in areas they could get good signal strength.

The ISP has laos pointed out that its plans to provide higher speeds (7.2 Mbps) on HSDPA devices in near future.
â€œWe apologize to those customers who were affected. The issue is simple to fix and we will be doing so this week. If customers still have problems after that, they should call O2 in the normal way.”

As for some of the customers who were reported to be getting lower speeds (128 Kbps), there could be errors in the network which the ISP says, that it has been fixing up the problems this week.

Currently, mobile broadband has been offered by providers like Three, Vodafone who give better speeds and it is important that O2 has to provide speeds comparable with the services of its competitors.

EU suggests single broadband market for better growth

broadband analyst — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 14:54:57 +0000

Broadband uptake is one of indicators that show how a nation makes progress in modern telecommunication technologies. In UK, more than sixty percent of the population have their own broadband connection, showing a manifold growth in broadband penetration since 2005. With growing expansion of LLU network, cheap broadband prices and the availability of variety of choices in consumer and business broadband, UK broadband market looks more attractive to today’s consumers than ever. However, a few issues like advertised speeds vs actual speeds and migration related problems are still being discussed among customers, broadband critics in forums demanding a complete solution for these problems.

The fierce competition among broadband providers has both pros and cons. On the beneficial side, broadband customers get a wide range of choices with a few ISPs offering cheap broadband deals at unbelievable prices. Do you need wireless support or a business broadband package with all essential features like email, static IP, domain name and web space? Whether BT or Eclipse, most business ISPs consistently slash the prices and a few ISPs like Tiscali, AOL or BT offer free wireless routers. TV over broadband and online gaming have also become popular stuff with many broadband customers during the last year.

How does UK fare among other nations in terms of broadband uptake? The latest report released by the EU Telecoms shows that not only UK but other nations in Europe like Finland, Denmark and Netherlands have better growth in broadband penetration when compared with other nations worldwide, especially, the US. According to the report, only one-fifth of households in US have broadband connection while six members of EU have surpassed US in terms of broadband penetration.Â

Viviane Reding, EU telecoms commissioner, while expressing happiness and statisfaction over broadband growth in Europe, also pointed out that the competition in broadband market can improve it further, while the customers should explore the broadand market in every way to get the best out of it.Â

Further she commented:
“Only by opening up the single market for business will Europe become competitive and will consumers benefit from a wide choice of rich and affordable services.”

Broadband provider Fast4 apologises

broadband analyst — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 16:09:18 +0000

Broadband provider Fast4 has apologised to its customers for the recent fall in surfing pace in the middle of jamming troubles. Steve Kaye, the chief executive officer of Fast4 broadband provider mentioned that the congestion problems were caused for the reason that the firm’s comprehensive supplier has reached a congestion limit on one of its asymmetric digital subscriber lines or ADSL.

They are now on a discussion about what can be done to set right the issue. Fast4 mentioned that it will let go any further updates when a decision have been made. Mr Kaye also mentioned that the firm deeply apologise if this problem is causing any serious issue to their esteemed customers. The firm is all set to rectify this at the earliest.

For those who are fighting with their broadband speeds, it is recommended that they disconnect and then reconnect to try and overcome the problem till the problem is completely solved. An achievement of the firm is that they have been voted as the best dial-up broadband provider by the users of ISPReview.co.uk from January to April of this year.