Broadband Speed Shock Horror!!!

A few weeks ago I was watching "The Gadget Show", which in the UK is a fun and informative show about gadgets (yeah the name of the show gave it away) and technology. Anyway, there was one episode which really got my attention. It was about the varied Broadband speed each household is getting around the UK. They believed that many people falling short of the "up to" speeds offered by their ISP, we're campaigning for the truth: advertised speeds reflecting what we're actually getting.

I decided to test their speculation out for myself by using one of these online "Broadband Speed Checker's".

How Does It Work?

The speed checker downloads a file from the server and measures how long your connection takes to download it. The size of the file will be different according to your line speed. The speed checker measures the speed at the time of the test so if your network is running slow at that time then speed checker will report a slow speed. This does not necessarily mean that your internet connection is slow at the other times.

My Findings

I currently have a 2MB internet conneciton speed that is supplied by NTL (well now under Virgin Media). I carried out the test and not surprisingly my connection speed was not 2MB it was around 1.5MB. I know that compared to other users, my connection speed is not too much of a reduction. But still I am quite angry that I am not getting exactly what I paid for.

Well what are you waiting for? Give it a go and you might be surprised that you didn't get what you paid for! Leave a comment and share your results.