A while ago, I wrote about some of the problems people can encounter with 'all-in bundles' in services offices that include a broadband connection (summary: most good, some bad, check you contract before signing to make sure you have options!)..  today though Ofcom have released a copy of their report into UK broadband providers which includes some interesting results.

You can read the Ofcom broadband speed summary  or view the full Ofcom Broadband speed report

If you can't be bothered to wade through all of that, the summary is that for almost all of the surveyed providers... actual throughput was around 50% of the headline figure (so an '8Mbit connection' was actually pushing through 4Mbits)... which for those on the inside of the industry is not new news (the physical limitations of the technology means this will invariably be the case)...

From the service consumer's point of view though, what they are being sold, doesn't match with what they are getting and while evolve customer's don't have anything to worry about from our system's point of view (evolve will support dozens and dozens of users from a typical ADSL connection), the increasing use of online video sites and the balooning average email size is more demanding. With the use of video (online interviews, CVs etc) set to rise, the throughput speed you can attain might just become a more important factor for many.

Interestingly, the one service provider who stood out head and shoulders above the rest was Virgin Media (now owners of NTL/ Telewest), who were also the only provider to have invested in their own dedicated network (everyone else pretty much piggy-backs on BT's cloud).. with Virgin topping out at between 8 and 8.7Mbits on a 10Mbit line, if you have the option they might just be a goood bet.