Brussels, 27/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - European consumers are not getting the broadband download speeds they pay for, when downloading web pages from the internet to the user PC. On average, according to a new study - the first of its kind, published on 27 June by the European Commission, on fixed broadband performance - consumers receive only 74% of the advertised headline speed they pay for. This is the first time that the difference between the speeds announced and those effectively received has been confirmed using comparable and reliable data from all EU member states, the commissioner responsible for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, is pleased to state. She says: “Consumers need more of this sort of data to help make informed choices, so we will repeat the exercise. And we take these first results as further proof of the need for a real connected single market”.
Key findings of the Commission's study are based on results of peak hour performance, i.e. weekdays from 7.00pm to 11.00pm, and are as follows:
1) Cable has the most reliable download speeds. The European average of 74% hides significant variation in the performance of different technologies. xDSL-based services achieved only 63.3% of the advertised headline download speed, compared to 91.4% for cable and 84.4% for FTTx (optical service network).
2) In absolute terms, the average download speed across all countries and all technologies was 19.47 Mbps during peak hours. FTTx services achieved the fastest speeds at 41.02Mbps. Cable services achieved 33.10Mbps, whilst xDSL services lagged far behind at 7.2Mbps on average.
3) The upload speeds are closer to their advertised speeds. Across Europe, the average upload speed was 6.20 Mbps, representing 88% of advertised upload speeds. FTTx services achieved the highest speeds by far, at 19.8Mbps. This is because many FTTx services provide an upload speed far closer to the download speed. Cable and xDSL services achieved a modest 3.68Mbps and 0.69Mbps respectively. (IL/transl.jl)