Europeans aren’t getting the broadband speeds they pay...
Europeans aren’t getting the broadband speeds they pay for, the European Commission said Wednesday. An EC study on fixed broadband performance found that, on average, users receive only 74 percent of the advertised speeds they sign up for. Key findings…
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included: (1) Cable has the most reliable download speeds. (2) In absolute terms, the average download speeds across all EU countries and all technologies was 19.47 Mbps in peak hours, with fiber-to-the-home reaching the fastest speeds at around 41 Mbps. Cable came next, at just over 33 Mbps, with xDSL lagging way behind at an average speed of 7.2 Mbps. (3) Upload speeds, however, are closer to their advertised speeds, with the average speed across Europe at 6.2 Mbps, which represents 88 percent of advertised upload speeds. Again, fiber services had the highest speeds, at almost 19 Mbps, with DSL at 0.69 Mbps. The results were based on peak-time performance, defined as weekdays from 7-11 p.m., the EC said. The study will run until the end of 2014 with two more annual measurements planned, and the EC wants volunteers to measure their ISPs’ performance via a device plugged into their home Internet connections. The study was the first on broadband performance that covered all EU members, including Croatia, which joins July 1, and Norway and Iceland, the EC said. The results should make cable customers happy, said Cable Europe. With average peak download speeds of 33 Mbps across Europe, cable users are in good shape well before the EC digital agenda goal of ensuring 30 Mbps for all citizens by 2020, said Cable Europe Executive Chairman Matthias Kurth.