Ofcom (UK):Help Us Test Broadband Speed Claims

Ofcom (the UK communications regulator) is looking for volunteers (here) in order to extend its ISP performance tracking research program for the next two years. The program tracks the real picture of UK internet speeds.

Last year results, based on 60 millions readings (!), are here.  The main finding, in the nationwide level was that the average broadband speed in the UK in April 2009 was 4.1 Mbit/s, compares to an average ‘up to’ headline speed of 7.1 Mbit/s - so the term used by ISPs "up-to" has a good reason to be there! Recent announcements from UK ISPs are even more ambitious (see Virgin Media plans 100Mb broadband).

This is of course a world-wide phenomena, and not unique to the UK. Using such research data, customers may compare the performance of the different ISPs and chose the one providing them the best price/performance (not necessarily by how well they are getting close to the advertized speed).

Ofcom uses SamKnows for the monitoring solution.