UK broadband speeds 2008 | Ofcom

UK broadband speeds 2008 | Ofcom

Ofcom perfomed a survey on UK broadband speeds, to gather information on consumer perception and to measure actual broadband speed and quality.

Ofcon found that the average measured speed was 3.6Mb/s (45% of the rated maximum of 8Mb/s) and that the average maximum speed was 4.5Mb/s (56% of the rated 8Mb/s maximum).

Speeds vary considerably between consumers, with one in five getting less than 2Mb/s (on an 8Mb/s rated line).

83% of consumers are happy overally with their broadband service.

Speeds vary significantly by times of day, getting slower in the evening and 5 - 6pm Saturday was the slowest. On an 8Mb/s line, the speed degraded by 30% during evening peaks.

The full report also measures further parameters such as upload speeds, latency, packet loss, DNS and jitter; we find a similar pattern of poorer performance during the evening peak time. The summary only analyses download speeds.