Mobile or Fixed Line Broadband - No Government Help in Choosing?

A lot of people wonder about whether they should plump for a mobile or fixed line broadband connection.  Another interesting article was published on this topic today.  One of the key considerations (next to coverage and price) is comparative performance.  Ofcom has not provided a "league table" of top performers in this market yet because it does not have the right tools for the job.

Ofcom (UK) and the FCC (US) employ SamKnows to monitor fixed line speeds in a series of small statistical samples of homes.  This tool provides no coverage for the mobile broadband context.  Guess what WebMeter does!

When more and more people start to use WebMeter they will be able to objectively see the difference in performance as they connect via fixed or mobile broadband.  WebMeter can provide separate summaries of key performance statistics for both cases.  Ofcom and the FCC need to be advising their citizens of the opportunities with WebMeter.

Ofcom paves the way, WebMeter provides the signposts

What a great result produced from Ofcom’s regulatory efforts in the broadband marketplace!  Ofcom has just announced that the cost of terminating a phone and broadband package early will be cut by as much as 85 percent. Over the past 18 months they have been working with the three biggest UK landline providers, BT, TalkTalk and Virgin Media, to ensure that ‘early termination charges’ reflect the costs that the providers save by no longer providing the service.  Cool!

Now that consumers aren't being penalised for making the right choice they know what to do, right?  Well, it's not that simple.  Broadband performance is a complex topic and its is easy to make the wrong choice.  Luckily, over the past 18 months we have been hard at work getting WebMeter ready to empower the Internet masses.  Have a look here at the issues involved in determining whether you are getting the ISP performance you paid for and understanding how to make objective consumer choices.

Ofcom Investigates ISP Speed Claims

Ofcom recently completed a study of the UK ISP broadband provider in terms of speed claims and the actually deilvered performance. Some of the headline results include...

• The average speed (or more precisely the actual throughput download speed) received by panel members was 3.6Mbit/s in the 30 days from 23 October 2008.

• This represents 49% of the average ‘headline’ speed (7.2Mbit/s) and 83% of the average maximum line speed (4.3Mbit/s)(-1-). Consumers on the most popular broadband headline speed package (‘up to’ 8Mbit/s) received an average actual throughput speed of 3.6Mbit/s (45% of headline speed), and they had an average maximum line speed of 4.5Mbit/s (56% of headline speed).

• Speeds varied considerably between consumers: one in five people on an ‘up to’ 8Mbit/s package receive an average speed of less than 2Mbit/s.

• Over a quarter of consumers claim that the speeds they receive are not what they expected when they signed up to their broadband service.

The full study which is available here. This should provide strong motivation for people that there is huge merit in being able to record, analyse and share their browser performance formance.