Customers benefit as broadband prices tumble

On the back of Ofcom’s latest annual broadband speed review, Simplifydigital reveals how broadband speeds actually delivered compare to prices paid by UK broadband consumers.

Charlie Ponsonby, CEO of Simplifydigital.co.uk explains:

“We have taken the latest Ofcom data which reveals the broadband speeds actually received by UK broadband customers, and compared it to the prices paid.”

“Our rankings show the definitive picture of who offers the best value broadband service versus speed delivered and we strongly advise reading it before buying”.

The very good news is that average broadband prices per Mbps of speed actually delivered, fell by 44% in the last year. Customers are paying an average of £2.30 per Mbps of broadband speed actually received in 2010, versus £4.11/Mbps in 2009.

Customers are paying less as average broadband speeds have increased and prices have remained largely static over the last 12 months.

There are however some big variations between broadband providers.

Winners and losers in Simplifydigital’s Broadband Price v Speed Rankings:

Today’s Ofcom study shows that if you simply want the fastest broadband speeds available, then Virgin Media is your best bet.

Fibre-optic (cable) broadband from Virgin Media was shown to be almost twice as fast as comparable packages from DSL broadband providers (using copper wire), such as BT, TalkTalk and Sky.

But in terms of price per Mbps of speed actually delivered, at £1.80/Mbps, Virgin Media comes second in the rankings.

Virgin Media is beaten into second place by Sky Broadband (but only if you are a Sky TV customer).

Sky Broadband for Sky TV customers costs just £1.41 per Mbps of speed delivered, which is the best value available in the UK today.

However the average Sky Broadband speed delivered, according to the latest Ofcom survey, is 7.8 Mbps versus 15.9 Mbps for the equivalent Virgin Media package.

Charlie Ponsonby continues:

“If you are a Sky TV customer, then Sky offers the best value broadband per unit of speed delivered, but although cheap you are very likely to get less speed than the equivalent Virgin Media package.”

“So if you are a speed freak, we recommend Virgin Media, but if you think with your wallet (and you happen to be a Sky TV customer), we recommend Sky Broadband.”

The data is based on Simplifydigital’s own package price data and Ofcom’s recent research on actual broadband speeds. The Ofcom research provides statistically significant broadband speed data for the first time as it is based on over 18 million service performance tests in over 1,500 broadband households during May 2010.

What to do if you are unhappy with your broadband speed:

Chris Williams, Head of Products at Simplifydigital comments, “How to speed up my broadband connection is the number one question we are asked and unfortunately there is no easy answer. You can plead with your current provider, you can try to optimize your in-home broadband set up, and you can switch packages or provider - but the latter may not offer any improvement. Hence we strongly advise talking to an impartial expert like Simplifydigital before doing anything”.