Ofcom Review of Broadband

I was quite happy to see that there are so many broadband providers in the country which offers "up to 8Mbps" broaband speed to consumers. All but with the exception of Virgin Media which uses cable, the rest are using existing copper telephone line to channel broadband to consumers.

There is a problem in the ADSL or should I say ADSL 2 technology at this moment. In the UK, virtually 90% of the broadband services have been channeled through BT's broadband exchange. The speed of the broadband will depend on the ratio and also the distance of a house from the nearest exchange.

What most of the ISP have done is to promise "up to 8Mbps" broadband speed for consumers. Ofcom have reported that consumers could not receive what ISPs have been promising - "up to 8Mbps" broadband speed. I think it is just an advertising gimmick from the part of the ISP themselves. None of which I have any connections and I don't really believe in ADSL technology anyway. Why would someone wants to use ADSL when you have cable broadband?

Virgin Media is the only company in the UK which is offering cable broadband service to customers. The cheapest plan which they are offering is the £12 a month on a 10Mbps downlink and 512Kbps uplink service. For the past few months, I have been using speedtest.net to gauge my broadband service and Virgin Media is quite promising.

The advertised speed is 10Mbps downlink and 512Kbps uplink. I have the pleasure to say that Virgin is the best ISP in the UK in terms of keeping up to their broadband speed. However, having said that, they do cut down on the speed during certain time of the day and later on boost up to the normal 10Mbps downlink speed after the peak hours have past. That is the only annoying part of Virgin Media but other than that, I am pretty happy with it.

I have been able to test out O2's wireless broadband, 3's wireless broadband and also Vodafone's broadband. Among the three wireless broadbands, O2's wireless broadband came up as the worst. There is hardly any signal in my house! 3's wireless broadband came in second for 2Mbps downlink and the best is Vodafone wireless broadband which offered 6Mbps downlink. Not too bad for Vodafone though. I have lots of confidence in Vodafone because they have one of the strongest signals in the UK. Couple with the fact that Vodafone have join alliance with O2, it should boost O2's coverage but it seems thate, it only benefited Vodafone. Shame on you O2! As for 3's services, I have no other comments but to say that they have one of the worst customer services I have ever come across. It is a shame for 3...