moneysupermarket.com backs Ofcom on the issue of speed

The third quarterly moneysupermarket.com broadband speed test reveals Britain's average broadband speed is just 3.04 Mbps, supporting recent findings from Ofcom on the state of the nation's speed.

James Parker, broadband manager at moneysupermarket.com, said: "Speed is one of the most important issues facing the industry and consumers. Over the past 18 months there have been a number of concerns that customers are being misled when buying broadband packages. As our speed test and the recent report from Ofcom show, people are often lured into buying high-speed connections that the UK's infrastructure simply cannot deliver.

"In December, Ofcom took its biggest step to address this issue by introducing a voluntary code of practice which all the major providers signed up to. It requires providers to give consumers an accurate estimate of the maximum speed their line can support; offer advice on why speeds may be slower, and offer an alternative package if the actual speed is a lot lower than the original estimate - a service our speed test shows to be essential in ensuring value for the customer."

The moneysupermarket.com speed test also shows the best value products in terms of speed are 2Mbps packages.

Parker continues: "For the average user, a 2Mb product will usually be good enough to meet their browsing needs, as our speed tests show; the faster products can often be poor value for money.

"As the UK's largest cable network, Virgin Media is the only provider that can actually deliver speeds anywhere near as fast as they promise, and their 50Mb package will hopefully go a long way in dragging the UK in line with the rest of the world. The scale of Virgin's investment shows it means business and should make the rest of the industry, including BT, sit up and take note."