Broadband speed campaign gathers pace

jrockape06 September 2010

Hi there, i must say that i was shocked to see the difference it makes to your download speed if you are using a wi-fi device . i have virgin 50meg and on my home pc i get around 48meg but when i use my laptop on wifi it drops to around 20meg.........is there something i can do to help this apart from a network cable. Cheers J

aron06 September 2010

My provider is aweful, I'm with Karoo in Kingston upon hull and I never get anywhere near 10mb. I get 3mb and 2mb at peak times, I contacted my service provider in the past and they sent a letter saying 'due to the area, the line speed is an average of 5mb, but the maximum speed I can surf at is 5mb'. nothing near there 'upto 24mb speed' they advertise on there website. I have just bought a new wireless modem router (Linksys N+) as in the past they explained this could be the problem, I'll be contacting them again as it has not made the slightest difference.

Steve06 September 2010

Nice simple speed test but the results were pretty much what I had expected for my area. Only 0.66Mbps download. no signs of it improving either.

Fiona Clarke06 September 2010

I got 0.87 on download speed and 0.23 on upload speed. I knew it was desperately slow, but I didn't know it was THAT slow.

jack timperley06 September 2010

our upload speed was 0.23 !!!! its incredibly slow!!! is there anything i can do???

Mark Middleton06 September 2010

I am absolutely shocked at my speed results. I not only ran the speed checker on this site, but 3 others too, my results all came back about the same, even though it's 19:07 (peak time) i expected much higher than i got, we pay for an 8MB connection but are told by SKY that we receive approx 3.5MB. Thats rubbish, best speed off peak is 2.7Mb but my speed as of right now (19:07) an appalling 0.07MB. Thats right, you read it correctly, no wonder i cant get a webpage!! According to SKY when i complained, they're advice is for me NOT TO USE THE INTERNET AT PEAK TIMES!!! how dare they tell me when to use the service i pay them for!! I think OFCOM is my next port of call.

allan06 September 2010

The poll needs an option for "about the speed i expected". I got around 5megs, and although I pay for an upto 8meg service, I know my phone line is rated for 7meg max to the main socket. My PC runs from an extension. I know from past experiance and testing that I can get 7megs depending on the time of day, and my service is very rarely below 4 meg. I use adsl4less, and in the 4 or 5 years I have been with them I have had only one period of no service, that lasted about 3 days and was due to a problem at the exchange. I upgraded from a 2meg service a few years ago, at the time i always hit the 2 meg mark aswell. As they are not actually providing my service, any actual issues i have with it are purley down to BT. As I am not fortunate enough to live in an area outside of BTs monoply I have no choice and can only get dsl. What erks me more than any speed issues is the cost of line rental for copper thats been in the ground for over 20 years and has been paid for many times over. I only have a phone line for broadband access and if I din't need that I wouldn't have one. BT should make a cheaper option that only alows for data and doesn't let you make or resive anything other that 999 calls. I also hate those stupid anti spam word checks that are unreadable, aka the on below that has taken about 20 retys to find 2 words i can read, and I use 'word' with a pinch of salt :(

kenyon shaw06 September 2010

after doing the speed test it was shocking to see yhe actual speed i was reciving but since i live in hull the only isp i can use for main landline broadband is karoo they have totaly monopolised the city and since we dont have acsess to a bt line (we only have kingston communications) we cant change to lets say virgin or sky e.t.c

Nathank3006 September 2010

We are meant to get 20mb and at average we are getting 1.65mb. It is so bad as they say UP TO 20mb are we are getting stupid speeds like 1.65mb. Its a crime.

melvyn grundy06 September 2010

hi jon i have a 3 network dongle for my laptop i did a speed test and on average it was about 2.14 mb per second is this a good speed for a dongle?

Phil Glover06 September 2010

Signed up to Talktalk "up to 8Mb" BB 18 months ago with an actual speed of 4.5Mb not bad, Now it's down to 2.27Mb. Booooo, bad Talk talk :-(

R NICHOLLS 06 September 2010

just ran test from a few sites im with BT and getting no more than 4MB at best and 1.3MB peak reason for test is tomorrow i will be getting infinity this is meant to guarantee me 20MB Up to 40Mb download speeds Up to 2Mb upload speeds we will see will post results later in month. engineer calling to fit socket at 1pm lets hope he turns up this time as failed to turn up at first appointment 3 weeks ago good old BT you can rely on them to cock it up somehow.

rosscopicco06 September 2010

I live in a rural area in Berkshire. I am with BT and I pay for their most expensive option which is £53.50 a month including phone calls. Speed tests tell me on average I can get approx 4 meg throughout the day. This is fine for internet browsing but not sufficient for online gaming whether it be pc, or console based. Internet providers need to remember that not everyone lives in the city or near an ISP exchange. I am told that I can get upto 8 meg where I live and this is not true. I am a mega Xboxlive gamer who needs a better and faster service. Bring us upto international speeds Cameron instead of leaving us in the dark lagging behind as usual!!.

Brian06 September 2010

I was shocked to find out that my ''up to 20meg'' router only give me just under 6meg both times i tried it!

Andrew06 September 2010

4.26mbps download and expected up to 20mbps and upload speed 0.5mbps. Not very good really

Chris06 September 2010

I got 9.26 mbs download, and am paying for 10 megs with Virgin, so am pleased to see I'm almost getting what I'm paying for!!

ash06 September 2010

I think your speed test is wildly inaccurate. I ran it 3 times, and ran speedtest.net immediately after each run. Yours was showing ~23Mbps, whilst speedtest was giving a more realistic 49Mbps. I know the latter is correct because downloading from newsgroups using alt.binz shows me i'm getting >50Mbps.

orphy06 September 2010

the speed of the broadband was advertised to be 20mb but the this test suggested to be just over 8mb. surprising result.

Mr Vincent J Reynoldss06 September 2010

Moved here nearly 6 yrs ago after promises from 2 of the major broadband suppliers (SKY & BT) has'nt changed still at about 1.2 mbs disgraceful!!.

Andrea Bassett06 September 2010

I pay for up to 10 mb with virgin media and on all test the highest I have acheived is 4 mb. Absolutely rubbish and I even upgraded as they told me this would improve my connection, I dont know why I bothered. It is so wrong and they have you over a barrel as they say they do not state 10mb they actually say up to 10mb.

Dayvid Swanton06 September 2010

After using your broadband speed checker the speed it told me I was getting was about right for what I have been checking in the past. I pay for up to 20meg from Sky and only get an average of 2.5 - 3 meg. Having spoken to sky on several occasions I have got nowhere. I have even thought about trying to change my broadband provider, but after tests down the line, they can only offer 2- 2.5meg. I would go with Virgin Media and their fibre optic broadband but they are not in my area. I feel very frustrated that the the providers of our broadband are simply not investing enough to develop and improve broadband speeds. They seem happy to just take our money and we have to put up with their poor service

Joshua Barron 06 September 2010

i had been told i would get 17mb by sky them selfs over the phone but when i got the conection i had 3mb so i went back to there basic one and had 2.5 but it has been about two or three months and i just checked with your test and got 0.7 download speed when i am ment to be getting two this is terrible >:(

David06 September 2010

1.7mb upload and 0.5 download with Sky, damn you Murdoch you parasite! That unbelievable lass in the adverts softens the blow, but less than 10% of what I should be getting, awful.

Tim06 September 2010

download 0.73mb and upload 0.25mb is what i got thats is 10,000% times worse then what i was going to get, so much for the UP TO 8mb Im ment to be getting karoo is so bad and will not let any other providers into the area and iv had enough, is there any way of making them sort this out? Tim Wileman Beverley near Hull

Sean Smith06 September 2010

Just tested 50MB Cable Broadband from Virgin. I got a 24MB download speed but a 0.8MB upload speed. This is with a cable attached. I have tested using a laptop with built-in WiFi (10/100) and got a little less but with a RangeBooster WiFi USB Stick it got up to 38MB. If you are using a built in WiFi on a laptop it might be worth getting a RangeBooster WiFi USB Stick. However if you are on a telephone network please remember that the small print says (depends on equipment, type of line, time of use and closeness to nearest exchange) as these affect speeds.

Stephen Shenton06 September 2010

I got 8.87 download and 0.47 upload that's on virgin 10meg package, virgin will always be faster than bt unless you know otherwise. I used to have orange 8meg broadband through a bt line, actual speed was 2meg at best.

handy80406 September 2010

Just changed to O2 and pay for up to 8Mb. Running your test in the evening get 6.77Mb download and 0.9Mb upload. Compared to Tiscali/TalkTalk a great improvement and not that much below what should get. I have bookmarked this page so can check again.

Clare Mullen06 September 2010

I have Virgin Media Broadband and have had it since Ntl dial - up. I have up to 10 meg speed and get 9.8meg at most times so i am extremely happy. The service is great. I get free Virgin Media security and now a free home support that checks the health of your pc.

PaulEmms06 September 2010

We suppsoedly have 20meg speeds from Sky. Our download was 1.71mbps upload was 0.48 tested at 9pm. We are on a wireless connection but the router is only about 4 feet from the wirelss router with clear line of sight and no magentic or mettalic objects in the area. Fully understand that consumer internet is whats called "contested internet" but thats just under 10% of what im told i would be getting, I dont suppose Sky would appreciate if I only paid 10% of my bill per month.

Karl Rowe06 September 2010

Way way slower than Sky say I should get I remember dial up being faster. However your own website has an ad on it from virgin broadband with the words up to upon it, if you can stop this from happining on your own website how can you expect to do it countrywide???

Andrew 06 September 2010

just ran test, 0.36 uploads, 0.39 down load . i live in Northumberland , 13 miles from Newcastle . it was ment to be up too 20megs. will dail up be faster ?, sony laptop wireless . .

PaulEmms06 September 2010

We suppsoedly have 20meg speeds from Sky. Our download was 1.71mbps upload was 0.48 tested at 9pm. We are on a wirelss connection but the router is only about 4 feet from the wirelss router with clear line of sight and no magentic or mettalic objects in the area. Fully understand that consumer internet is whats called "contested internet" but thats just under 10% of what im told i would be getting, I dont suppose Sky would appreciate if I only paid 10% of my bill per month.

Babyboop06 September 2010

Rubbish but really all I can expect from Virgin Media. Highest I can acheive is 4mb and am paying for up to 10mb. This is the excuse that virgin actually use that you can achieve up to 10mb. I even upgraded to higher as they suggested this would make my connection faster. So fell hook line and sinker for that scam. Really dissapointed with Virgin overall and this just adds to it. Paying far to much in the first place for all services when other companies are offering far lower rates for the same services.

Phil06 September 2010

Hi, From the test I got Broadband Speed Test Result - 13.64 Mbps (down); 0.13 Mbps (up). I am using VirginMedia`s 20 Mb Broadband. I have tried a few other online speed test sites and found they range from 3.5 Mbps to 18.6 Mbps. I did the test one after each other. But I do think that the speed is a lot better then what I was getting with Sky`s 20Mb service that would only comeout at 8.5Mbps at best.

james06 September 2010

i think it is disgusting how broadband providers get away with this and how much they charge for the broadband speed which clearly shows i am not getting.i should be getting 20mb but after doing the test im only getting as little as 3mb and im with sky charging me 30 pounds a month i hope the gadget show look into this and name and shame these companys who are robbing people like myself

David Bowstead06 September 2010

We are with Sky and they say we can get up to 8Mb with our package but our line is rated at 3Mb - which to be fair they did tell us when we signed up and you can check via the My Accounts page. Running this test it came back at 5.09Mb download and 0.65Mb upload. Which was better than I expected and a huge improvment over BT, who we were with before. But reading the above comments regarding Sky - I maybe just luck!

gordon ferguson06 September 2010

BT CHARGES IS FOR UPTO 20 MB BUT YOUR TEST SAYS WE GET 2.24 THIS IS BAD

Euan Innes06 September 2010

Currently paying for 8Mb and getting 0.91Mb! BT had the cheek to tell me that if I downloaded more than 80Gb in a month again they would reduce me to 1Mb! If they do this again they WILL get a strong e-mail. Rural areas so get the sh**ty end of the broadband stick. I used to be self employed and getting large audio files transfered was a nightmare. I still can't watch BBC I-Player in HD, which is just as well because BT would complain about overuse of the line...

steve06 September 2010

bt broardband , download 1.17 upload 0.36, really dissapointed, thx for the opportunity to test though..

nathan campbell06 September 2010

i am suppost to be getting UP TO 8MEG but i just did that speed test and i was shocked to find out thati was only getting 0.36 MEG download and 0.37 UPLOAD !!!! sky broadband IS CRAP !

Adi Nough06 September 2010

Just completed the Broadband test and suprise suprise download speed 1.66 Mbps and upload speed of just 0.36 Mbps. Not to mention being constantly cut off and never being able to stay on line long enough to do anything. Well AOL it will soon be adios. 8MB is what I am paying for not htis rubbish. I even spoke with India (help line) only to be informed that I should buy a new DSL and if that dosen't work then to call AOL back!!

Eddy06 September 2010

I think you need a 3rd option on your vote. My speed is as I expected but I can't vote on that. I feel your results will not show the full picture.

Aaron Stelfox06 September 2010

Hello BT says we should be getting 0.51 Mbps and our computer is saying we are getting up to 64 Mbps but Gadget Show tester says 0.24 Mbps, disgraceful!

Perry06 September 2010

Hi Jon, we are in Maidstone in Kent,On Virgin Media.We were on 10 meg just upgraded to 20 meg and its still terrible.I checked it on the broadband test and the most I could get was 15meg. I really think that something has to be done after all is this not false advertising by our suppliers

Carol Luck06 September 2010

I have Talk Talk BB as I live in a non cabled area and am unable to receive the faster speeds that fibre optic provides. I was told that i would be getting 8 meg but in reality on a good day I get 3 meg but normally it is under 1 meg. Shockingly slow !!!!

Tony Rhodes06 September 2010

I'm with BT. I got a download speed of 5.37 and an upload speed of 0.65. I heard that the further you live from your telephone exchange has a great impact on your broadband speed. I'm with BT.

simon06 September 2010

pleasently surprised pay for 20meg getting 18.56 to 19.07 isp virgin media

Mike06 September 2010

Just tested at 2100hrs Monday with Virgin 10Mb service in Macclesfield Cheshire. Results 9.6Mb download and 0.5Mb upload. Don't think I have cause to complain today. Great campaign by the way. Roll on higher speeds and cheaper prices.

Allan D06 September 2010

I find if i run the speed test then use the one on my providers site my speed goes up on both speed testers. Is this a coincidence (it always seems to work) or do they provide an uplift when they find you are checking? They do offer faster on my line for more £ so it is available

Dale06 September 2010

When with Tiscali connection was slow and only 2meg BT ran line check proving line capable of 5meg. TalkTalk offered 20 meg but was so slow it wouldn't open emails on their webpage. Left all these high sales poor performers and moved to Utility Wharehouse and they measured speed and sold me package based on lines capability. When will lines have hte capacity to provide connection speeds to support modern day requirements? There is no point in governments and businesses requiring all to have internet if the infrastructure reflects our railways, bus service shocking!!!

RockabillyJane06 September 2010

as you all predicted SLOWER....i did the test on two different days and both............. download and upload were slower than my provider states....i will be ringing them up to see what they say and for a discount!!!!!! Yeah like that will happen!!! download 3.45 3.03 upload 0.44 0.41 providers need to be shamed into doing something.........good luck with the campaign!! Keep it rockin'

Matt06 September 2010

2.7mb from a 20mb connection... rubbish!

Alec06 September 2010

0.12 mbs download 0.37mbs upload paying for up to 20meg on plus net, need i say more.....

Windows06 September 2010

I'm with Virgin and I have signed up for the 20mb package. The test indicated that I'm downloading at a speed of around 19mb. Not too bad.

swatty06 September 2010

I live just over 500m from my telephone exchange and, on average, get between 7 and 7.6Mb, with overnight downloads running at 7.95Mb when PlusNet does not run their traffic management. The lowest I have seen is 6.5Mb, whilst son is playing XBox Live on a Saturday afternoon The problems that ISP's have is that if you live close to a rural exchange, like I do, then you an easily achieve the advertised speed. Most of slow experiences I have had are when PlusNet are having capacity issues in Sheffield rather than my connection to the exchange.

mick lakey06 September 2010

Hi just done my speed test iam on a 20mb connection just tested throught my router download was 18.7 upload was 0.07 that was a poor upload

Paul Sargeant06 September 2010

Hi Originally quoted 8mbps by BT but told the actual would not exceed 5.5. I am actually achieving barely 2Mbps Dissapointing to say the least. Regards Paul

andyt06 September 2010

I know i live in a village but the speed was pants and i have a router from samknows measuring the speed as well. Have used bt speedtester and never got a speed this low will keep an eye on it.

jeffers06 September 2010

BT provide my broadband @ 1.65mbps.down and 0.37.up.....instead of upto 8mb. Thrashed out a reduction on my line rental and monthly broadband subscription.......

Greg06 September 2010

I pay for a 20/.75mbs connection. Results showed me as getting 19.5 down and .65 up, not too far off at all. Speeds are generally very consistent too. Virgin Media.

kevin lochead06 September 2010

getting 19.74 download from this website and 15.25 on speedchecker the uploads are still way to low just over half a meg, on a 20 meg with virgin.

grisleyreg06 September 2010

I use Orange broadband and get 12.7 to 13.4 on an up to 20mb package but was told when I joined to expect around 13mb so pretty happy wjth results

Chris Meachen06 September 2010

Mine was an appalling 1.3meg download speed, with an upload of 0.23, & I'm paying for 8 meg... I'll try again at a couple of different times before voting, though..

Paul06 September 2010

I am on the side of the providers here. Generally users experience slow speeds simply due to the nature of the technology and the way it is delivered. The speeds advertised are simply the theoretical maximum based on ADSL Max (8Mb) or ADSL 2+ (24Mb) running in ideal conditions. There are so many factors that effect the speed of the service that it is impossible for any provider to guarantee speed unless it is delivered over fibre. On reading some of the comments above it is clear there are users who simply do not understand how the service works and most likely ways they can improve the performance of their connection. There is light at the end of the tunnel, Things will improve in the near future as BT roll out fibre to the cabinet and premises.

Victor Vallins06 September 2010

I pay for 20meg with Virgin Media Cable (Optic fibre) the test gave me 18.7meg download but only 0.7 upload. Used to have Orange but only got 4.3meg at best from a 8meg deal.

Val Horner06 September 2010

My broadband speed is pathetic. . .0.09mbps Download and 0.36 Upload. I have contacted my provider many times but to no avail. . .would love some help on this. . Thanks

Rich Morris106 September 2010

I'm on Virgin Media 20Mb, and the speedtest found 19Mb, exactly what is was expecting.

Sarah06 September 2010

Virgin promised us 10mb and at peak time (2130) we got 9.54. Not bad!!!

Dave Cole06 September 2010

unbelievable - not sure why I am so surprised however I've never seen a result so poor - less than half a meg upload and a third download. Not exactly value for money!

Nick Thomas06 September 2010

Hi john, I was very disappointed with the speed of my broadband as it says that i am getting 5-5.5mg but your test has told me i am only getting 3mg i thankyou for this test as i will now be chaing my boradband asap! thank you very much, yours sincerly, Nick Thomas

Daniel Rayner06 September 2010

I recently moved house and as Sky Broadband was so good in my previous home I decided that I wanted to continue using them in my new home. I previously had unlimited up to 20mb broadband and this was brilliant as I am quite a gamer. I knew that I wouldn't be able to get the same service due to the area I moved to, it's a bit rural. Little did I know that the only service available to me was Sky Connect Broadband, which uses BT lines. Sky rents these lines from BT and so the cost is quite high. This service however is absolutely terrible. Going from inner-city broadband to Sky Connect was like stepping back in time. During peak times, between 5pm and midnight, the connection is drastically reduced to the point where even browsing takes a long time. After doing some research I found that not only is the broadband speed reduced, which is actually the result of BT customers having priority and also the over subscription of Sky Connect, but also that Sky does something they call "Traffic Management". This actually restricts your type of internet usage by stopping Gaming, Video Streaming and Peer to Peer networking. As an avid online gamer, finding out that I couldn't play online with my mates in the evening and weekends - or whenever I was home from work - really really annoyed me. Unfortunately I see no alternative and will have to wait until the countries broadband improves, or I move somewhere with a better connection. Has anyone else had a similar problem?

Allan 06 September 2010

My BT broadband states speeds upto 20Mb, when I tested line before I signed up, it estimated a max of 6Mb. Which I would have been happy with. Tested speed is actually 2.2Mb so not very impressed.

Mark06 September 2010

The test isn't accurate, it said I was getting around 9Mb, but the real and accurate test on when downloading binaries from newsgroups shows me getting every last bit out of my 20Mb connection that O2 provide - as I live so close to the exchange. These web based tests should be taken with a sack of salt.

chris p06 September 2010

I am with virgin media using a 10mps connection and despite using wireless on a laptop i am still getting 9.57mps at 10pm a busy time and just after the show has been on so the site must be busy. i am suprised it was so good

RainKing198706 September 2010

I pay for 8 Mb from Orange. I have done the test a few times now and it runs at about 6 Mb on average, I don’t think that’s that bad, but then I guess they should pay me back all the money I have spent on the missing 2 Mb : )

LadyMac06 September 2010

Using the test I find a nice supprise, I get 9.5, very close to my 10Mb on my wireless laptop, with Virgin Media.

David06 September 2010

Used your speed thingy, and was a bit dissapointed, so I tried the other speed thingies that you mentioned, and they both gave better and equal speeds that was very near the 20Mps that I am paying for with Virgin. Upload was the norm of 0.7Mps From what I have read, the ADSL connections are suffering from sharing the bandwidth with neighbours. I am glad that the team have taken up the challenge of championing the false advertising that most providers are using to entice customers

Talyn06 September 2010

I have an 8Mbit fibreoptic connection through Virgin Media. I've always kept an eye on my broadband speed by using tools like Speedtest.net just out of interest, and off-peak has always returned pretty good results (hovering around 7Mbit) so I never thought to grumble about the fact that when in 'good conditions' I wasn't getting 'exactly' what I paid for since most of my usage is off peak. But recenlty I've been doing your test at peak times and realising how badly speeds can be affected! - returning results as poor as 1.5Mbit! This is not what I signed up for and what I would actually get should have been made clear to me on signing up; as once you take out a contract you are tied into it for the duration.

Scalawag06 September 2010

I swapped to O2 broad band about 18 months ago. At first I signed up to an "up to" 20Mbs plan, but O2 contacted me to let me know that I would not be able to get this speed and that they were downgrading me to their cheaper "up to" 8Mbs plan. I don't get 8Mbs, on this test I got about 5.5Mbs which is what I was expecting. I do think O2 where actually very fare to me when I signed up and they do get me the fastest speed I can get at my address.

Talyn06 September 2010

Ps Broadband speeds would be a lot better if it wasn't for all the advertising *hint* :(

Anthony Greenwood06 September 2010

You need a third category to vote? 'As expected, but slower than promised.' I cannot vote for either of your answers.

Steve06 September 2010

0.33Mps and charged for *up to 8" !!! I am told that this is due to the BT line so perhaps we should be complaining to BT not the ISP's.

John McCone06 September 2010

Hello, I am currently having to use Sky Connect with upto 8Mbps (in theory). The postcode checkers state I should get upto 3.3Mbps in my area. However after trying both Speedchecker and Thinkbroadband it showed I was getting between 0.180 - 0.648Mbps throughout the day. This was tried numerous times throughout the week but it did not improve. I even tried the Sky's own speedchecker but each time it disconnected me from the internet. It even took many attempts to load your site and run the Thinkbroadband test. I agree that the UPTO phrase should be removed and replaced with actual speed figures.

TimL06 September 2010

I only ran the test direct via the ethernet connection, but got the expected results with a Virgin 20MB advertised speed around 18.9MB download speed was recorded - Well done Virgin they even show you the download speed on installation - so no problems there.

Steve Clutterbuck06 September 2010

BT quoted me 7-8mb and their test still tells me that, but I am only getting 3mb at best BT service is awfull had major problem with BB dropping out after several months and changing equipment and new sockets etc fault was traced to badly carroded connection on pole out side engineer said it fell apart when he touched it, still hasent speeded up my broadband though ;-)

Sara06 September 2010

i have run this test and i am with sky on the 20meg and i have just done this test and its 3.7 what a joke what can we do to stop this...... this is crime

Matt Scully06 September 2010

Hey there, Considering I work for an ISP, which will remain un-named for obvious reasons. I think that everything will change when the Fibre to the Cabinet is complete by 2012. BT Openreach/Wholesale are making good progress with this, as planned (www.bt.com/infinity) if you are in Maidenhead or Milton Keaynes, I would deffinately get signed up to a FTTC trial. It will greatly improve your speed of dare i say it.. "up to 40mbps" - as it will only matter about the distance to your cabinate, rather than your phone exchange. I have seen some people who are on Fibre to the Premise who get a whopping 75Mbps download speed. I personally don't see a problem with the "up to" phrase. its the suppliers that say "you will get 8mbps" or "you will get 20mbps" - The ISP i work for, will actually give you your estimated speed before you sign up. (the data comes direct from BT wholesale, and does a speed check there and then) which i think ALL ISP's should be doing. Just thought i'd give my 2 cents :) Matt

Tammy06 September 2010

we are with Karoo which is a Hull based company, the speeds we get are so slow ,,, sort it out Karoo

Allan Thomas06 September 2010

Hi John I have just tried your speed cheak and you tell me 8.47 Mbps download and 0.82 mbps agenst what Talktalk tell me they say Download 13857 kbps, and 822 up load, which I think when converted is 13.85 mbps download so I think they are just giving us a load of crap.

Alun Allford06 September 2010

I am not happy with the results of the test download speed of 0.63 and upload of 0.37 how bad is that. I did the test at 22:23 tonight I am on a contract with sky for up to 8mb speed I might as well be on dail up at this rate

Matt Scully06 September 2010

Tammy: Unfortunately Karoo are a whole different kettle of fish, as they run their own telephone network that isn't part of BT, and sadly wont benefit from the fibre technology. The Hull City council need to get off their backsides and realise that they are in the 80's still and just let other providers sell their stuff in Hull. Its quite annoying really..

Allan Cook06 September 2010

Are ISP is Virgin, and we have the 20meg My Speed test With Virgin Broadband Speed Test Result - 18.56 Mbps (down); 0.7 Mbps (up) This was done at 22.15 on the 6/9/10 will test again this week Allan

hugh06 September 2010

pay for upto 20meg with sky only getting 3.2meg not good tbh

Pieter allchiin06 September 2010

Hi I am on Virgin 50mb connection and it has hardly changed over the last few days, I have taken 10 readings and the average is 48.78 download and 1.52 upload. So i get about 99% of what they state which is brilliant, that is using my laptop and a desktop, the desktop with direct connection and the laptop via wireless. Next door are on BT and are very dissapointed with what they get which is about 40 % of what iit should be.

Matt Scully06 September 2010

On a seperate note, my ISP is Virgin, I'm on the 50mb package, and i do GET 50mb, as per the link -> http://www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk/results/47549141.png So, yes. they do give you speeds as advertised. And the engineers don't leave your property till you get 50mb. which is quite good, The engineers who installed my 50mb were there for 90 minutes, because the first speed test got 45mbps So, I'm very happy with my service.

Matt Scully06 September 2010

Also, you cannot compare Virgin, to BT or any ADSL provider, as it is a fully fibre network. Speed of light will always win.

Tiderium06 September 2010

45 meg from virgin media is pretty normal for me and it stays there too. regardless what I do online.

justin warren06 September 2010

i just tested my BT connection under 2 meg download speed and under 1 meg upload shocking

Julian06 September 2010

Slow slow slow 20mb yeh right lucky to get 3 mb. I wonder if the ISP's will allow payment from customers with the same phrase. I will pay my ISP upto £10 per month for the service received. (By the way you have a trojan clicker on your main site. 06/09/2010 22:31:37 Infected Trojan program Trojan-Clicker.HTML.IFrame.g http://oas.five.tv/RealMedia/ads/adstream_jx.ads/fwd.five.tv/gadget-show/blog/1744125630@Top,Middle,Right!Middle High) Please feel free to delete in the brackets

Neil06 September 2010

Hello - I have Virgin Media at Home - 10Mb connection - I got 9.8Mb download - always been good and reliable. Left the SKY bloke with a flea in his ear when he tried to see me "up to 20Mb" broadband. I also have a BT line that the work installed for me to work from home, ISP is ZEN. This is a "24 Mb line" - I did the speed test and only got 13.8 Mb download. - I am half a mile from the exchange, so would expect that to be a lot better. - It also suffers from drop outs and have been grateful of the Virgin line as back up for the odd hour, here and there. For those people on Virgin who have speed issues, I would recommend reporting it to Virgin and insisting on a new Cable Modem - the new kit is more compatible for the faster speeds. This is true of BT as well, they are currently rolling out the new 21st Century technology to the exchanges - a lot of ADSL modem routers in service at the moment do not fully support this, so drop outs and slow speeds are plentiful at the moment - the chip sets in the old modems are not up to the job - look for a the new ADSL2+ compatibility. Hope this helps......but if you're serious about speed, only cable will do!

deano06 September 2010

I have virgin media large package and touch wood seem to always get between 9.7 9.86 of the claimed 10mb so really pleased.

Julian Ferdinand06 September 2010

I have Sky up to 20meg unlimited broadband. I chose the up to 20 cause I wanted the UNLIMITED bit for peace of mind. I thought I was getting 5 meg.... but your speed test said 2.7. That is pants!! I just look forward to moving when I will be in a BT infinity area!!

pjgtech06 September 2010

Hi, great campaign, but can I ask why on the Five - Gadget Show home page they have a large advert from Virgin Media with the "up to 20Mb" slogan clearly displayed? Bearing in mind the current campaign, is this not a bit....unfortunate...

Michael Ballinger06 September 2010

Was rather surprised on the speed not all that good, I do wonder if the weather play's any factor in it then again modern technology should take the weather into consideration Loving the show you should all be proud.

Tiggykanga06 September 2010

Our little country exchange has just been unbundled and speeds with Talk Talk have risen from 1.9 average to 4.03 to the router (3.48 by the time it is wirelessly received by our laptops). I live in a very old house down a bridleway with ancient telephone wiring (and ancient every other external facility), more than 1.6kms but well under 5kms from the exchange so I am relatively happy although I think the last speeds I saw advertised were up to 8mg, might even be more now. In any case, apparently the most my line is capable of is 5mgs and that comes from BT AND Talk Talk independently.

shane young06 September 2010

stuck with only a bt line in my area of sheffield and with o2 isp. o2 uses ADSL2 tech and still only get 4mb out of 8 download speed. the real criminals are BT who quote me 8mb on a standard ADSL line when in fact it would struggle to reach 2mb then charge me more for my line rental than my isp does for broadband.

The Badger06 September 2010

I am with Sky on the 20Meg service and on the outer limit from the local exchange. When I signed up, Sky did inform me that I should expect approx. 1.5Meg. Your test and using other test sites state I get 1.4Meg. So Sky were correct. Would be nice to eventually get a higher speed.

simon06 September 2010

V pleased ,paying for 10 meg and getting 9.5 from Virgin via a wireless router.

Laurent Griot06 September 2010

I thnk you should collect the results in a DB, and ask us 2 things: 1. postcode 2. our ISP supplier. This way over a month, we could create a map of the UK for each ISP, where the public could actually see for their postcode which is the fastest in terms of real speed. I would certainly agree (and sign a form so that you have a proof that I agreed) to release this information to you, provided you keep it as anonymised.

Tom06 September 2010

Mine was only showing 3.3 download and .83 upload. Sky also use a find if you are compatible by either entering your phone number or address so i tried it my phone number was not compatible (even though i already use sky broadband) but when i entered my address it said in an area that could have sky Broadband but my telephone line was not compatible and i would need sky talk and line installed even though i already have that this sounds like its just there to sell the service and not to test the line.

Mark R06 September 2010

I'm fairly happy with my speed 6.67mb seems within the parameters expected. I live fairly close to the exchange, but in an old market town in Cumbria, with copper to the house, so that's going to have a baring on the overall speed. Without significant infrastructure upgrades, which would have major disruption to the highways I can't see an early resolution to greater speeds in areas like this.

Glenavie06 September 2010

I am on the Sky Broadband Full Internet Package. My Download Speed Average = 1.5 (Sky predicted this speed when I signed up / BT also give the same figure). My Upload Speed Average = 0.6 I live 1 mile from a BT Telephone Exchange. This figure seems very low.

Rhys Davies (newport S Wales)06 September 2010

Im with sky on.. wait for it "UP TO 20meg" I to like many others am (to use choice words) very upset with my results ! it was not what you call a result thats for sure.Dependant on how you use your PC's etc etc i.e newsgroups torrents , file sharing , networking will all have an effect on the results. Shockingly mine with your test was around 4meg up and half a meg download.. i too ran speedtest.net and had roughly the same result. To be more accurate i recommend using both methods as a comparison. Have only your browser open with one page at a time , don't be uploading streaming downloading etc etc , have no other devices connected to your network , and most of all try at different times of the day. most people will log on after they come home from work and the highest user time would have to be weekends. SO try out of office hours when running your speedtest comparisons, i.e silly o clock in the morning and late o clock at night. Mr Bently feel free to air my comments !! consent provided.

Russel06 September 2010

My test was 11Mb download. We had to fight with BT for months, at one time we where getting less than 1MB! In the end they said it was a faulty board at the exchange. But complaining is worth it (over three months worth) and doing at least 3 tests a day and recording your results.

Alan Jenney06 September 2010

Well, I live in a rural area and am getting 3.3Mbps, which is better than I expected. The exchange only supports -up to 8Mbps-, no sign of an upgrade just yet. Where I used to live, I got 10Mbps on an -up to 20Mbps- connection. However, I don't think that the use of the words -up to- is misleading, as whenever I have done a check for my postcode with a supplier, I have done been given an estimate of the expected speed and have always got slightly better results than the reported baud rate. Frankly, I still find it astonishing that you can get anything reasonable across twisted pair cables that were only put in to carry a single voice call!

terry06 September 2010

i just tried the speed test and found 3.3 downloads and 0.16 upload speeds. i am pretty digusted especially the price we have to pay for it, after all you would not be happy if you walked into sweet shop and see sign saying buy our jelly babies for x amount you could get up to a 100 jelly babies and when you get outside and found you got only 35.

RICH06 September 2010

toi be honest i pay for a 10mb and i get 9.7 download and 0.47 upload from your test . i have found if you are with cable fibre optic you have a really good download connection. i have had others and i will agree with most comments on here they are poor and need to sorted out. i have contacted my friend to do the same test as he is on the 50mb line and he has 49.9 mb download

SLick1a06 September 2010

Who are the biggest players? in my humble opinion in no particular order would be SKY , BT and VIRGIN. When virgin was NTL ~ cable was always the better option ... if you lived in a cable enabled area ..alas its the same with Virgin ~ as long as you live in a fibre optic cable enabled area. Sadly one does not. so you go with a provider that supports LLU. and choose datastream !! rather than ipstream. This is balanced by the fact that usage costs for ISPs are higher using IPstream than their own network. Datastream is the similar system where ISPs in the UK use BT equipment but use their own IP transport. Which should in short pass a saving on to us the customer. and the customer is always right !! WE ARE PRETTY MUCH ALL PAYING FOR A SERVICE WE DO NOT RECEIVE ! i pay for up to 20meg so i would expect a constant speed OF up to 20 meg , lets be generous here , then again ive paid for it so no lets not i want 16-18meg constantly on this type of package. Virgin users seem to be getting almost what they pay for ..thus is the future of fibre optics. The following link is an example of just how far behind we are as a country with regards to broadband speed. i found it quite interesting http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7098992.stm With South Korea and Japan leading the way with fibre optics and fibre to home. Lets back companies like Virgin (fibre optics) trialing 50meg and BT (Fibre to home) which could see us getting almost 100meg !! Lets get the fire lines in.... TO MY HOME !!!!!!!!!!!!

Jack Andrew06 September 2010

HA! , My broadband is so slow that the Speed test dosen't even load at all ! (Karoo in Hull)

Flatpack06 September 2010

Using mobile broadband as Land line never achieves better than .2Mbps of an advertised 2Mbps. When we moved in were told up to 8Mbps but quickly revised by BT once we asked them to check the line and was told that we should never have been told up to 6Mbps Mobile broadband (3) usually performs better but not at peak times. Beats land line hands down, 1 to 2.5 Mbps but can drop as low as .09Mbps

Steven Harris07 September 2010

I am currently with BT broadband who boast download speeds up to 20Mbs but because of my area which is in the sticks can only get speeds of just over 1 Mbs so should I be paying full price for it? as I am only getting under 10% of their speed why not pay under 10% of the price! As the only phone lines going into the house are BT as no Virgin lines in the village no other provider can beat it as they usually us BT lines and are therefore limited by BT's equipment so BT pull your finger out.

Gordon07 September 2010

I'm paying SKY for an 8Mb connection and check the speed tonight at 23:45 when things are quieter...and got 0.37 for download and 0.36 for upload, what a con. I phone the SKY support desk and ask if I can upgrade to get better speed and they told me I am under contract till the beginning of next year so can't do anything, including kicking them into touch...aren't they under contract to provide me with a service too? It should work two ways.

PAUL07 September 2010

i'm paying for 10 meg and the test shows that i am getting 9.46meg. Good to see that what virgin say you should get you actually get!! that's fibre optics for you. I had a talktalk rep come to my house one evening insisting that the bt service would be better and that virgin were not on fibre optic. I sent him away!!! They will try anything.

Viv Stafford07 September 2010

You just made me angry - what kind of a damnfool poll was this? Of COURSE you're unlikely to get the full speed - but I'll also add that EVERY speed tester I've ever tried underestimates the speed my connecrion can reach. In fact, if you visit Microsoft and simultaneously download four large games files - say 400k+ each - the download box will give you the download rate for each game, which is easy enough to verify with the clock on your PC ond a quick check of how much is being downloaded.per minute. I'm lucky in that I live right next to my local BT exchange, and have seen throughput of 90% of the advertised speed under favourable conditions. To ask if the result is better or worse than we expected is downright cheating. It loads the answer drastically in favour of - well, yes. If you haven't done any homework before you signed a contract, if you haven't paid attention to the media over the last few years - well, yes, you'll be disappointed. But the way the question is phrased - well, as an intelligent and informed consumer - if I believed your checker, then I might be disappointed. But having a little experience - no, I'm actually quite happy, thank you.

Kev Billington07 September 2010

Everyone- Please take a look at this site and then weep! http://www.speedtest.net/global.php#0 Then join the campaign to complain about our appauling service providers

Matt Auckland07 September 2010

I'm on O2 ADSL2+ (Be Unlimited) in rural Hampshire (South), using a Netgear DGND3300v2 router (latest firmware v2.1.00.42_1.00.42). My advertised speed is "Up to 20meg download speed, depending on where you live" with "Up to 2.5meg upload speed". But when I took my package out I was on their Business tariff with 16 mbps (mbps not meg. Naughty O2) and dedicated business support. But they axed their Business packages about a year after I joined. Your speed tester provided by Think broadband comes in at 13.63 mbps and 1.07 mbps taken at 00:11am. Whilst Speedtest.net using the Maidenhead server gave me 14.63 mbps and 1.01 mbps at 00:13am. The router control panel shows 16380 kbps down, and 1304 kbps up. But let's face it, you never actually reach that. As an I.T Consultant with 15 years under the belt in both industrial and commercial I.T and systems, O2 has provided the best solution by far in my area. BUT....this isn't always the case in all areas. For example, nearby Southampton city centre you can only get around 10 mbps on a good day with O2, due to your local exchange. Also Virgin advertises high speeds, but in Portsmouth I've seen reports that you don't always get these speeds, and they suffer from instability on the connection. Also BT tops out at 6 mbps my area of Hampshire, and as a former reseller of BT (Enternet) telecoms, I personally wouldn't switch back to BT....well not until 21CN rolls out in a year or two. If you're in doubt, or you would like to know what you can get on your exchange, use SamKnows Telephone Exchange checker here: http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange_search Happy surfing!

slick1a07 September 2010

Download speed 4050.38 Kbps (3.96 Mbps) Upload speed 471.89 Kbps (0.46 Mbps) for up to 20 meg this is 3rd test 6hours apart.

Ian Jennings07 September 2010

Yeah go out and buy yourself a N range router and N range WIFI Dongle if your laptop isn't already N range..

jAstreets07 September 2010

my package is from sky and is meant to be 20mb.. in reality im getting 0.68mbps that was a test at 12:30am so im pretty sure it will be even worse through the day. rediculous! i hope the gadget show manages to get this sorted out. its like being sold a ps3 and recieving a zx spectrum.

Ian07 September 2010

Thought Id check my households speed on the checker and found that we are not even receiving a whole 1mbps when we were quoted 1.5-2 Mbps and we're with TalkTalk and their customer service isn't great either.

Peter07 September 2010

With Virgin and very pleased with the spead being very close to advertised. Could do with an option to show this rather than just Slower or Faster

Mark Oates07 September 2010

Virgin Media 10Mbps service, clocking at 9.07Mbps. Sometimes the speed can drop or cut out altogether, but most of the time the speed's excellent. I take more issue with Virgin's appalling customer service and billing regime. I'm currently paying £25pm for this 10Mbps service. New customers can get 50Mbps for £28, but when I asked a customer rep if I could upgrade, I was told I'd have to pay £11 per month more to go to 20Mbps and over £20 more to go to 50Mbps. When I said I'd have to consider going over to Sky, the rep said I could do that and hung up. Obviously Virgin don't want old customers, only new ones.

Kev Billington07 September 2010

1 South Korea 34.60 Mb/s 2 Latvia 24.76 Mb/s 3 Aland Islands 23.79 Mb/s 4 Lithuania 23.30 Mb/s 5 Republic of Moldova 23.23 Mb/s 6 Netherlands 20.92 Mb/s 7 Romania 20.12 Mb/s 8 Sweden 19.65 Mb/s 9 Andorra 19.06 Mb/s 10 Japan 18.36 Mb/s 37 United Kingdom 7.96 Mb/s !!!!!!

Gary Pollock07 September 2010

I am on Sky Unlimited broadband which is advertised as up to 20 meg. Upon installation early last year and after line test was completed Sky reckon I should get around 5 meg but your speedtest and other I used report on average 4 meg so losing 1 meg somewhere.

Mick from Derby07 September 2010

6.7Meg!! On up to 8Meg but give away 1/2Meg to BT fon for my free openzone minutes. I live out in the stix a little and no other isp can guarantee me over 1Meg, so BT is a winner for me with Vision TV package and extra phone line (free voip) too. No problems, can't rate them highly enough!

Richard L07 September 2010

I did the test several times and with 3 different tests, yours and the other 2 you mentioned. Whilst all confirmed that there is a significant difference between my Virgin L (10mb) advertised rate and the actual speeds, there is also a major difference between the results. Your test has my average download speed was 4.5 - 5mb/s. Broadband Speed Checker has my average as 7.5 - 8mb/s. Speedtest.net had my average as 5.5 - 6mb/s. These tests were all carried out immediately one after the other, and at varying times as suggested, always with the same variances. Whilst I am not happy that I do not get the full 10mb/s that I am paying for, I am also interested in any comments you guys at The Gadget Show would like to make over these differences in measurements. Surly all of these speed checkers are supposed to be calibrated?

Andy07 September 2010

Just wanted to let you know that I have a 3 Mobile broadband package claiming to give UP TO 7.2MB, but the test shows a paltry 1.05mb download and a slightly (should I say it) better 1.5mb upload speed. Has any one ever reach the dizzy heights of 7mb I doubt it. A better description for the marketers would be "A Minimum of Xmb" then at least everyone would where they stand. I think the phrase I am looking for is disappointed and cheated. Yep that sums it up. Love the show keep up the good work. Andy

steve page07 September 2010

Virgin Media 10mb cable. I am getting approx. 9.6 most of the time so can't complain especially when I see the results of some of the people on the comment site. Am looking forward to even faster and cheaper broadband but won't be holding my breath. {:^(

dave :)07 September 2010

iam paying for 20 meg from virgin just checked the speed and it seems very slow download 14.68 upload 0.7 ive now tried the test at different times of the day but seems to be about the same i will be on the phone to virgin very soon :(

snowtrouper07 September 2010

Hi, my names Matt and I live in Wolverhampton, Suzi's home town. I've just tested my virgin 10 mb broadband and got 9.55 mb. I test it regularly via another speed tester and this is a consistent result so I am obviously very happy with my service. I would therefore like to suggest that you add another option to your poll as I feel it would be unfair of me to click the 'slower than expected' option just because of that tiny amount less and I of course can't click the 'faster than expected' option so maybe a ' just what I pay for' or, 'bang on the money' option would make the results of your poll more comprehensive. Either way I applaud your efforts and I enjoy the show so keep up the good work.

AdR07 September 2010

Signed up for BT when I moved into my current house after they estimated I'd get about 12-13mb on a 20mb line. I'm only 1/2 mile from BT exchange & just got over 14mb on your test, so I'm reasonably ok with that. Presumably I'd have to live in the BT exchange to get near 20mb! I used to live 4 miles from same exchange, out in the countryside & never got more than 1mb on an 8mb line. I also think the 'up to' phrase should be removed from any advertising.

judge rudy07 September 2010

my speed is exactly 9.75 24 hours a day and seven days a week.... and there is a very good reason for this, and that is.... i don't give up!! here's what happened... i have no phone line and don't want any cable tv and that sort of thing so i was tied to virgin as a provider with their cable broadband.... and got the 10 meg one at the vastly expensive price of £18 a month... when i got it and tested the speed it was 2.2, which is totally unacceptable. after many phone calls and explainations as to why they should sell me something like 2 meg for the 2 meg line speed, they eventually agreed that it was unacceptably slow but 'it doesn't work like that' (referring to them only charging you for what they are giving you) i said 'well, you havent dealt with me before then!! you are shortly going to find that it certainly does work exactly like that!! twelve phone calls later (getting the name of a person positioned above the one i was talking to each time) i had moved up the chain of command enough that the mere ringing of a telephone in what was probably a rather plush office caused enough annoyance for the following to happen within two days!! i now basically have a private connection to a certain point (originally my cable was split from the one thats serving this block with the one over the road with about 20 flats in total) put in one morning involving six of their workmen and associated cable pulling equipment and better still they have given me a 20meg connection for the price of the 10 meg and capped it at 10 (well, 9.75) i call that a victory for the little (or most annoying) guy!!

SLittle07 September 2010

I like many of the people in the UK pay for "up to" 8Mb download speed as part of my broadband package. I have carried out connection speed tests at various times of the day ranging from peak times to about as off peak as you can get. I have found the results vary from a paltry 0.87Mb/s to an equally paltry 0.98Mb/s. Despite finding next to no difference between peak and off peak, I find that at peak times I can rarely even get my computer to get a connection of any sort.... Not good enough!!!!

Simon Argent07 September 2010

While I appreciate that people aren't getting the speeds that they would expect, I find it hard to believe that it can be expected for companies to change the 'Up To' part. If they give a static figure, this will open up the floodgates for expectations which are impossible to achieve. Broadband Speeds are affect by a number of different factors - distance from the exchange, contention ratio, number of people using the bandwidth at any one time. If a company stated that they will give 8Mb then users would expect those speeds 100% of the time. By saying Up To 8Mb then the company are covering themselves and users can expect lower speeds... How would you expect a company to fairly say that they offer a speed but it might be lower depending on the situation (and you can't expect the to provide everbody with a 1:1 contention ratio!!)

Alan Harland07 September 2010

BT said I would only get 4mbs on my broadband but I appear to get about 6mbs and your test says 6.78mbs so I'm happy that BT was not trying to give me wrong info

michelle07 September 2010

once again, disappointed by a british web-site. as i was testing my computer beause it was slow, it took forever to get to the page for the test, only to find out there are no "results" guides, which might state a range that is considered low or high.

Ed_Rooney07 September 2010

I am with SKY. Upto 20MB download speed is advertised but I am getting 300kb... yes kb NOT MB!!! You call their 'help' line! Ha... joke! Another off shore 'service' whereby some bloke just repeats everything you say but has not got a clue what you are needing help with! I am hoping, fingers crossed, that I get some responses to my 5 emails I have sent them over the last 24 hrs. 2 via their contact us section on their website... I wont hold my breath! Incidentally, when I enter my home number in to their line checker on the SKY webpage... I get the result... your line is not compatible for sky broadband!!! They are more than happy to have taken my money off me for the last 4 years for that incompatibility!!! Weird too as my next door neighbour gets 1.5MB dl speeds, same provider!!! And yes... I HAVE checked all my connections and equipment etc. From reading all the comments here... are they all alike? All as bad as each other? I think it is easier to emigrate and get a decent service overseas!

Dale MacD07 September 2010

Usually get 8 - 10MB line can only support up to 12 apparently although a web test once read 17MB! Probably worth noting I have had OpenReach engineers out twice this year and it does seem the last bit of external cabling may have a fault that won't help.

Sharon Sherif07 September 2010

I am with Virgin Media .... and pay for 10meg ... and have tested my speed for the last 2 weeks at different time of the day and using different speed testers ! at its worse I get 2meg at its best I get 5meg ????? GRrrrr so I should pay half the amount dont you think !

edwin Mitchell07 September 2010

I have always used Virgin 10MB and it is always around 9MB except around tea time when it drops to about 6MB never had a bad problem with this Desktop wired direct

Mike Liddle07 September 2010

I'm with O2 home broadband, with an "up to 20 MB/s" package, getting a 14.6 MB/s download speed. Uploads are glacially slow, though!

paul wright07 September 2010

If i where to buy something from a shop and it was not fit for purpose under the trade descriptions act i could (a) take it back. Or (b) get a refund . Also shouldnt the contract to supply broadband be where we get them to change there ways in the pocket usually does the trick .

Martin07 September 2010

My girlfriend and I are both on Sky's "up to 20mbps" service. I get about 8mbps and she gets around 1.3mbps - shockingly bad; but then she does live far away from the exchange.

jordan 07 September 2010

hi i was shocked when i got mine through it came out at 0.49 mb download and 0.38 mb upload when we should be getting 7 mb thanks now i can see why its been so slow for so long lol

mike07 September 2010

I'm also with Karoo in Kingston upon hull and I never get anywhere near 10mb. I get 3mb and 2mb at peak times,, Nothing is done about it, WE CAN ONLY HAVE KAROO unless we get the usb dongles !! NO OTHER PROVIDER is covering the hull area. karoo is over priced @£16.99 a month .

jane07 September 2010

Test measured at around 20 but speedtest.net gave a result of 47. I repeated several times at different times of day and still got different results. CONFUSED!

rafrafUk07 September 2010

Can I suggest a third option on the poll? Speed as expected: I'm on a 10M line with virgin media and it's always been spot on. I just measured 9.58Mb over WiFi which for me is more than acceptable. Anything below 8Mb and I would have complained.

joseph close07 September 2010

do you think i have the slowest download 0.28 upload 0.28 in the UK i am with AOL

John Phillips07 September 2010

Hi John - I had been using AOL as my ISP for about 7 years. They charged £19.99 advertised a speed of up to 8mb .... and I always got less than 1mb! - I changed over to O2 a couple of years ago ... same exchange .... only £7.50 per month ... but now I get 5mb. Still not fast I know, but MUCH better and a lot less per month.

MEDIC1207 September 2010

Amazed and disappointed. BT 20mgps service actually running at less than 1 mgps.

Paul Dexter07 September 2010

I have Sky broadband and have their top package which claims to give me 20mb download, but your test showed I was getting less than 1mb. This is appalling.

Gram07 September 2010

I have 8meg connection and get 4.5 MB in your test, so I think this is good considering. One thing I noticed whilst using Netmeter was that it was running at 1.25 MB then dropped to 0.8 when running your test - this, I suggest, proves that the reason for most people getting bad response is others downloading huge amounts of data.

colin lowe07 September 2010

i was dissapointed with my talk talk result of 6.63 download and 0.69 upload till i read some of the other comments here seems i'm not doing so badly

Gordon Johnston07 September 2010

Megabits!! you should be so lucky, I have tested my broadband speed three times and hav e readings of 0.11Mbps download and 0.21 and 0.23 Mbps upload speeds, one of the dissadvantages of living in a rural area, but it is marginally faster than my dial-up used to be!

mike07 September 2010

Upto 8mb only around 3mb and no faster than 200kb from around 5pm-11pm it really is awful the only plus is it is so cheap now compared to 5-10 years ago. My isp is sky

howard Jennings07 September 2010

It's not just ISP's that are 'conning' us, with 'upto' most retailers have up '*% off' in thier sales, and just look at the customer serveys for hair and beauty products. Gillette asked 63 people what they thought of thier Fusion razor and loreal asked about 127. they sell million of units around the world, how usefull either to them of us is it ask such a small number of people. it's just misleading.

Steve Panter07 September 2010

I use BT with their promise of upto 20 Mb download, however get just under 3MB and .36 upload. I live in Leasowe on The Wirral, Merseyside. BT reckon the problem lies with the local exchange and we are not covered by cable yet. BT are asking for another 12 month contract but I have doubts about what I can do. Great show BTW... Steve

A depressed consumer07 September 2010

Why-o-why-o-why are we happy to get a broadband speed of 20mbps when the technology is out there to give us a full 1gbps like they have in Japan and in the next 2 years South Korea will have it too. We the British consumers should threaten our isp that we would cancel our broadband contracts until they provide us with a connection speed of at least 50mbps and see what the outcome is, the average broadband speed in Japan is 63mbps

John Parnell07 September 2010

Hi i just tested my broadband speed (i am on AOL) had download speed 0.46 MBPs and upload of 0.35MBPs very slow especially as they promise speeds up to does anyone actually atain the speeds promised by ISP i very much doubt it. John

Jon Hayward07 September 2010

With download speed of 6.61Mbs, this is about normal, it sometimes drops to around 5.5Mbs but this is normally around tea time. Work is supposed to taking place to enable speeds upto 20Mb/s, personally I think these people live in a dream world, as there is always an excuse for slower speeds. Upload speed surprised me, I had no idea what the upload speed was or even should be, as ISP's only sell download speed, so I have no idea whether 0.75Mbs is good or not.

Chris Troman07 September 2010

Thank you gadget guys I am with BT and signed up with them because of their advert thinking it was a good deal. I have just run the gadget show speed tester and was quite shocked to see the result, Download speed of 0.13 and upload speed of 0.36. This is appalling as I am paying for upto 10mb. I also notice that when I went onto the BT site you can upgrade to a faster speed BUT not downgrade to save money and pay for the speed you are actually receiving. Something needs to be done so come on gadget guys keep up the good work.

David Turnbull07 September 2010

Hi ALL, I can get around 8 to 9mbs throughout the day, I’m with TalkTalk “up to 24mbs Download” I live around the corner of the Telephone Exchange so thought download speeds would be nearer to 24mbs, WHAT speeds are their Customers getting when they live right next door to an exchange? Are they getting nearer to the Max? I bet NO ONE will! Or one or two could? This cannot be a good average! I have tried EVERYTHING to get a higher speed with the help from TalkTalk so this is the Max I Can Get.

BarryT07 September 2010

Not surprised at all with the results. I am with Tiscali or TalkTalk as they are now known, on their "up to 8 Mbps" package. Carried out a.m.and p.m. tests, with identical results, namely 2.37 Mbps download and 0.58 upload. Also used the BroadbandSpeedchecker and their result was 2.448 and 0.498 respectively. This site, interestingly, allows you to check the max speed you can get in your area and the result was 4Mbps !! I fail to understand why we simply cannot be told the truth from the outset.

BLU:72 Creative07 September 2010

We pay for the 20mb Virgin package and achieved 16mb download which is good enough I guess, but the upload speed of a piddly.7mb is shocking!!

Ian Muir07 September 2010

Download 30.17 upload 8.11, pretty happy with that and my provider is BT Infinity

Lee Eccles07 September 2010

It's not so much my download speed that bothers me it's the pathetic upload speeds i get.More and more of us upload images and videos to the net every day yet the upload speeds stay constantly low.I was told off Virgin Media that if i wanted a better upload speed i would have to upgrade to their 50meg package.I don't need 50 meg download speed and eve with that package you still only get 1.5meg upload speed.I would happily sacrifice a meg or two of my download speed to get a meg or two back in upload speed.I went to upload a 16 second video to Youtube which was just under 1 gig in size.It showed that it would take nearly 4 hours to upload it,it's just not acceptable.Why don't the ISP's give us better upload speeds? These companies take our money by direct debit every month without fail and they take the full amount.There should be a way a working out you monthly average download speed and that's all you should have to pay for.Maybe then they would get there act together.

Richard07 September 2010

I'm with TalkTalk and was told that I was close enough to the exchange to get the full 8Mb. I have done 3 tests so far and am getting around 6.5Mb. Although slower than the advertised speed it was faster than the 3-4Mb I was expecting. However, the upload speed is abysmal at 0.34Mb, which is less than 5%. I know upload speeds are quite low, but I am surprised that they are THAT low!

Paul07 September 2010

Had a problem with slow broadband, contacted BT Broadband who, despite being a India call centre were pretty helpful and confirmed I was running at 1.6 Mbits (previously it had been 5.6). Just ran the test and got 5.88 download and 0.88 upload. New router on it's way as WiFi not working anymore (free of charge from BT), maybe this will help but don't expect anymore than 5.88 in my area through standard BT line. I never would pay more for a promise of faster speed - I'm an engineer and know full well the limitations of the copper infrastructure and bandwidth etc. Why oh why didn't BT replace old lines and overhead lines with Fibre when they had the chance 20 or 30 years ago, although to be fair a few years ago the main lines from the exchange failed through corrosion (very old) and it was replaced with fibre - it speeded up my connection a lot!! But when would we see fibre to each house - maybe not in my lifetime!

adrian murray07 September 2010

i was surprised to see that i am getting 8 mb and my package from virgin is 10 mb, i didn't think that was to bad! i done the test on Tuesday morning about 10 am so will try later in the evening to see the difference

Sandy07 September 2010

My last broadband was so dire the ISP told me of some testing software and to get back to them with the results, but the service was so poor that the tests couldn't even complete. I now have Orange. Rubbish. Cust service, appalling. Readings this morning from 1.64 to 2.12 Mbps download and constant 0.49 Mbps upload. I have spoken to other ISP's and none will guarantee ANY speed and all use the 'up to' crutch. Your campaign should be supported by everyone. Regards,

Glen07 September 2010

6.94Mps using Sky Broadband. Up to 20 Meg advertised. What a load of rubbish! Great test though.

pobman07 September 2010

Results as I expected - how should I record this on the poll?

David Tunstall07 September 2010

Signed up for O2 20Mb service. After 3 days O2 contacted me, and told me I was unable to get more than 8Mb, so they reduced my subscription the the *mb tariff. Top marks for honesty!. Now I get a solid 6-6.5Mb download speed, which I consider fine for the distance from my exchange (2Km). No complaints here :)

dave fendley07 September 2010

I'm with virgin with 10 mps.The test showed 9.45 mps so,not bad really. Upload was only 0.45 though don't know if this is good or bad! cheers! dave.

Simon07 September 2010

All seem to have missed the point. I get slow speeds @ peak times. Not ISP fault its BT, the telephone exchange is over stressed. To many people on line with not enough connections allowed = bottleneck at exchange. I have been with Freedom 2 surf, then o2, then Fast.co.uk and now Talk Talk's Opal telecom. All have same speeds at same times. Its all down to exchange in my area and more than lightly yours as well. I get 7.5 meg during day 8am to 3pm. 5 meg 3pm to 6pm then anything from 5 meg to 128k 6pm to 10pm. o2 did admit after 3 months that it was exchange not them and capacity at exchange was then upgraded. Fine for 3 weeks then slow again. Changed to Fast.co.uk, best IPS in UK, same problem and they told me same thing, BT know its exchange but weather they choose to do anything is another matter

Jenni Cox07 September 2010

Looks like I'm one of the lucky few, I use wi-fi laptop only with Virgin Media broadband medium package (upto 10M) and checked my download speed using your checker 15 times over the past week plus using one other checker 8 times; and with one exception around 8pm last night I've recorded between 9.3M & 9.89M on each occasion!

Alan Pink07 September 2010

Your test gave me 5.5Mbps download and 0.37Mbps upload with TalkTalk. As these are about what I expected (I check regularly using thinkbroadband's test) I cannot vote as you only have options for better or worse than expected. According to the website 'samknows', given my position from my exchange (<1km) I should expect a download speed of 7.5Mbps. Therefore simply quoting an average of 3.3Mbps as you suggest would be just as misleading as uptp 8Mbps. I think it would be better if the ISP's explained that download speed depends greatly on distance from your exchange and also on the number of other users on your exchange.

Andy Shades07 September 2010

Hi I pay for 8Mb with plusnet but get only 0.44Mb at best

lorraine dixey07 September 2010

hi just done test. like it. very fast. anyway in on virgin bb and should get up to 10meg bb speed. the test was done at 10.25am and it said downloads 9.55 and uploads 0.47.

james green07 September 2010

i have done this test a a few times during the week always at the same time being 10am 12pm and 8pm, with a massive difference every time. the latest was today at 10am with speeds of 1.18mbps download and 0.37mbps upload. surprisingly the best speeds ive been getting is during peek times being 8pm, with a speeds of 6.12mbps down and 3.21 up. im with skys talk talk service and should be getting "!upto!" 20meg. but the most i have got so far while using this test is 6.2. however i received a letter from my isp stating that "after completing a speed test on the phone line i should be looking at around 12meg" and that this is due to how far away from the exchange i am. that is a load of crap tho because the exchange box for my area is at the end of my drive!

Becky07 September 2010

Before I did the test I called skys customer service for the broadband and spoke with a lady called (Rennea?). I asked her to check my speed, to which she did by testing my line. She told me that the line registered at 12.2 MB. I pay for up to 20 MB on doing the broadband test at 10:16 am the results were as follows:- Download speed was 5.97 MB and Upload speed 0.77 MB. I will check the speeds again in the afternoon to compare. I never realised until the show to which I am truely thankful. I am more than willing to help in any possible way.

Iain Butcher07 September 2010

Why not start a Petition at No. 10 Downing Street at: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk I have started two of my own, and it seems really easy

Andrew07 September 2010

Hi, I don't have a problem with ISP's advertising "up to" speeds but they should be required to show that they are actually delivering the claimed speed to some users somewhere. ie if they claim up to 24Mb then they should have to show someone somewhere actually achieving this speed.

Paul07 September 2010

I was told up to 8 mb when in fact I am only getting 0.25 mb download and 0.20 up Have talked to talktalk about thus and they tell me it is because I live 4 miles from my exchange.

john07 September 2010

I got 9.87 mbs download, 0.47 mbs upload, and am paying for 10 megs with Virgin, so am pleased with Virgin as i think its the best you can get for your money and i've been with Bt, Aol, Talk Talk, A big Hi 5 to Virgin :D

El Bocko07 September 2010

Another "pretty much as I expected" comment. With BT 8MB contract; getting 3.7 Mb downstream and .33 Mb upstream. Report is the same with Broadband speedchecker. Having looked at some of these comments, I feel I am rather lucky compared to a lot who seem to be being ripped off by Sky and Virgin. I am glad I do not live round the corner where people have Virgin cables in place (Virgin could not be bothered to do the extra 3 houses in the row).

Daveybm07 September 2010

Results as expected on Virgins 20Mb service Download 19.7 Upload 0.7 Totally as advertised on Wirral Dave

lee springthorpe07 September 2010

Im with sky and i'm paying for 20mb broadband and receving 1.17mb but i have 2 xbox a pc and a laptop all sharing this connection and i have no connection problems so not that bad, but would like clear information on what speed i'm paying for!

24bit_192khz_07 September 2010

I use a iMac 24inch OS X and have tested many times over many months both wireless and via Cable connections. I use Virgin 50MB and use both Virgins Modem and Router. The problems are: You will also ways display a GREAT! reading if you turn Everything Off and On then carry out a test. But! testing later in the day will provide a massive change from 48MB to below 30Mb and via wireless less than 20MB. Also my wireless will change quite a lot within a very short distance and offer very poor results using Virgin setup. Virgins Modem boxes are not well made (FACT!) and will easily break down very quickly if you are turning the boxes Off/On regular due to poor signals.. My best advise is once your system is up and running well, then NOT! to turn the Virgin Moderm Box off unless you have to., and to considering looking around for a better wireless box. We have {3 xBoxes 360 live} {1 PS3} {1 wii} Wireless laptop, Wirelss Printer, {2 DS} iMac plus the rest of the normal stuff i.e. phones e.c.t.

matthew07 September 2010

ive just ran your speed check and i am shocked at the speeds i am getting. to say i only live within 1 mile from the exchange its shocking. im currently with sky unlimited 20mg broadband and im only running at 6.5mg. come on isp tell us our real speeds.

Carl Bennett07 September 2010

I've always suspected we have a slow connection - i-player is a complete non-starter as it pauses to refesh every few minutes. Your test backed -up my suspicions - 0.47 for download and 0.37 for upload. That's not a typo - less than 1/2 a Meg, but this may be the price for living in the North of Scotland (betwen Inverness and Aberdeen).

Mark Howcroft07 September 2010

Checked at 11am on a Tuesday morning and got 7.9m down load and 0.46 up, not bad as using a wifi router at a paid for 10meg download with virgin fibre optic!!! Howie

Mark Elliott07 September 2010

I've just run the test again. Sky's "consistent" speeds are just that - consistently slow at 2.5 Mb actual as opposed to the 20 Mb quoted. I've asked Sky if I was to have a lower line speed (say 5 Mb) they'd still give me 3Mb, or if they apportion the speed so that I'd only get 0.625 Mb - no answer to that! How about we offer to pay ISPs "up to" £20 per month and then pay them £2.50p? That should shake things up! Mark

Colin07 September 2010

If everyone out there thinks that they have a slow, appalling speed test from their service provider, then spare a thought for me! I cannot even get to do a speed check. Every time that I have tried, I keep getting a no server available message. This is only the start of many download problems that I have. I pay Sky for upto 8Mb, but am obviously not getting it. Think its time to complain again. The last time that I did, my speed shot up to 15Mb, but that only lasted for a day. I feel that it is high time that BT got their finger out and get rid of the telegraph poles that my line runs on. After all, this is the 21st century. This is only one of the many reasons that I am no longer a BT customer.

Arthur Hadley07 September 2010

I was shocked, I am a sky customer and they said that i can get upto and payng for 20mb internet, I am only getting 9.75mbs. is there anything I can do to sort out this problem. Thank You.

Tony Endersby07 September 2010

Hi Jon, im with Sky who say up to 20meg, i get 4.5 according to your speed test. Its a scam

S Evardson07 September 2010

A couple of points... Your speedtest is a bit poor, I easily get the 50mb advertised on Virginmedia on other speedtesting sites and whilst downloading. The wording on your poll is shockingly bad, there is no option for I get the speed I pay for! Whatever your results from this 'study' the whole thing is flawed.

Leigh Boyton07 September 2010

My download speed is 0.74Mbps and my upload speed is 0.18Mbps. Every time I check it the speeds are worse. I am going to complain.

Steve07 September 2010

8.62 download and 0.4 upload from virgin - we pay for 10Mb so its not too bad...

tracey palin07 September 2010

i am with O2 when i checked i was not even getting 1mps and i should get the full 8 so i called O2 who did some fiddling then they got it to 1 then internet kept crashing so this morning been on phone all day and have had to endure the un plug your box , plug direct and even un screw and take the cover of the master phone box!!!!!! so now they want to send me a new box well guess what i had one here in the box sealed ready to go ha ha and i still have low crap speed so now they want to test the line for 24 hrs so lets see what happens next

Dave Strudwick07 September 2010

I must be one of the lucky ones, I pay for 10mb, I get just under 10mb off peek and 7.6mb peek, do you think its because I'm with virgin cable and not over BTs old copper wires?

Katie Ambrose07 September 2010

I consistently got 1.17mbps download and 0.36 upload... in fairness BT tell me I'll only get 1.0Mb when I put my postcode in... but I do pay the same as others getting much more.

oldwriter07 September 2010

Mick, my download speed is 0.33 to 0.44 and my upload is 0.33 I did various download speed test over the week, including two o'clock Sunday morning when everybody else is asleep, you would think that is the best time to download, the main problem is not so much everybody being on at the same time, it's the rubbish service they provide, my ISP BT Telecom in Manchester as I live in stafford, it is over 50 mile away, I think BT and the other ISP suppliers are more interested in their shareholders and making huge profits and not the customers, I spoke to an BT engineer and he said that it is too expensive to put in optic fibres which would speed up the Internet service, whatever happened to Gordon Brown's promise to have the best Internet service in Europe, you can get Internet service better in the middle of Africa , you can in England.

steve07 September 2010

putty much what i expted paying for 8meg and only getting 3.11meg

Peter07 September 2010

I was surprised to see my speed was so high. I have free Broadband with Orange. At just under 2mb I am happy with that. My concearn tho' is that I have been offered UPTO 8mb for a small charge. Apparently my phone line will not support any higher than 2 meg....... Great show~ Peter .

mark booton07 September 2010

3.42 meg download at 11:45am i was promised 20meg if i leave BT and go with sky? when i phoned and said what the hell is going on, they said "up to 20meg" i was getting 3-4meg with BT but im now locked into a contract for 12 months!! i feel very ripped off.

Andy Crocker07 September 2010

I get an average speed of 6mb download and 0.35 upload speed. I am with BT and pay for the unlimited up to 20mb package. I am very annoyed about the speed I get compared to the speed I pay for. However the most annoying thing is that I live NEXT DOOR to the BT exchange. So why the slow speed ??? I have contacted BT they can not give me an answer.. apart from the fact that the exchange needs upgrading.. I asked when this will take place and was told they have NO plans to upgrade at this time.. Now if BT had been honest and told me these facts when I upgraded to the 20 MB package I would not have bothered.

Bill07 September 2010

Am not even getting to the test page. just a blank.

Keith Milner07 September 2010

I have to say, I find the aim of this campaign to be deeply flawed. The advertising of broadband in the UK is perfectly clear. The words "up to" aren't difficult to comprehend. they are no different from a car manufacturer advertising a car price as "from", and this information allows the consumer to differentiate between different potential offerings (e.g. a service which can only ever achieve a maximum of 2Mbps versus one which could achieve, say, 8Mbps). These maximum speeds are achievable for some people. ISPs already do give individual users an indication of the sort of speeds they can expect from a service. OK, this isn't perfect, but what is the alternative? I don't think there really is one other than ISPs stopping advertising speeds at all. How, in this case, is a user expected to know the difference between an ADSL1 service and an ADSL2+ service which could give them more than double the speed for the same price. This would actually cause more confusion amongst consumers as they wouldn't have a clue which service might give them the best speeds without getting a personalized quote from dozens of ISPs (which defeats the point of the campaign). I think your campaign to tackle the misuse of the word "unlimited" was fantastic. But this latest campaign is completely misdirected. The problem is not the use of the words "up to", but the aggressive sales tactics used by many ISPs to get customers by lying to them.

Alec Beanse07 September 2010

There seems to be something wrong with your test as it only gave a speed of .5 Meg whereas the other two sites you suggest gave 5.5 Meg and 6.8Meg respectively mid morning. Out and out speed is only part of the story though, consistency is, I suggest, of far more importance. My connection (Virgin Nation - we can't get cable) gives typically 6 Meg during the day but starts to slow up as soon as people's ankle biters get home from school and usually ends up at .5 Meg during the evening. On one memorable occasion Speedtest gave an upload speed faster than the download speed. As soon as I can decide who to move to I intend to bin VirginMedia. Personally I would settle for a 3 Meg connection that gave 3 Meg 24/7 rather than the present "up to 8 Meg" job that gives 6 Meg off peak and .5 Meg on peak. So perhaps you should also campaign for decent contention ratios as well accurate speeds.

James Mark07 September 2010

We're paying full whack for BT Infinity. We're supposed to be getting 40mbps but its now just 6mbps according to that test. We're not being limited from heavy downloading either - that has always been the speed. But worse than that is the fact it drops to 0kbps for a split second every few seconds. It makes playing online games impossible. We've tried complaining to BT about this and they've sent an engineer around twice... but the problem persists. They don't want to know. Wish I knew how to take this higher. Avoid BT Infinity! Or rather be prepared for problems and lower than advertised speeds with them too. We're getting 34mbps less than advertised.

mr_singh07 September 2010

This is outrageous, I have just been on the phone with my ISP and when I specifically asked about my internet speed they said to me “Sir with talk talk you can receive a speed up to 24mbps.” Then I come on the gadget show website and I find out that I am actually receiving 3.93 MBPS. If this isn’t insane then I don’t know what is.

George07 September 2010

Its midday, somebody must have extracted a digit, I am allocatted 10meg I have just completed another run and am surprised, my d/l is 7.83meg. tho the up/l is 0.47meg which is not so good but then I`m not in the up/l game, all in all I`m happy, I will keep you informed.

carlos berghusen07 September 2010

After watched ur program did a run and not sorprise at all my speed is no where to 330 ,dont know what is it ,but we upgrade our package with PLUSNET and have been a nightmare veveryday couldnt do any work ,just waiting to end my contract but same time we like to rise a question ,can I leave this broadband if they havent deliver what they promised ,can i contact the slower OFCOM,or contact any help? regards

Wendy07 September 2010

Just checked my broadband speed at 12.30 pm - not a particularly busy time of day - download speed 4.6 mbps - upload 0.75 mbps - HOW SLOW? Wouldn't mind so much but have just increased monthly fees to go from UP TO 8 meg to UP TO 20 meg internet with Talktalk - absolute rubbish - just another rip off!!

steve de-cantelupe07 September 2010

Ridiculous,when i moved here just over a year ago i had just changed to virgin in the hopes of getting the best deal with the best speed.my initial checks 6 months ago showed top speed of no more than 2.5mbs.looked into speed up options such as bt's add on to your phone line only to find mine is incompatible. "up to 10mb" is what i am paying for with no hope of any local upgrades to improve the speed and quality as of yet. your check at 12 noon showed speed of no more than 0.48mbs. considering i like to use such sites as demand five and bbc iplayer to catch up and stream my tv my frustration is ever increasing as most of the time i cannot watch any programs unless i get lucky during a low usage time of day,which is rare.

John C07 September 2010

well the drop in speed for the wierless could be down to your ruters transmishon strenth and tranfer r8 me and my gf play alot of online games she uses here laptop on wire less and im via cable i perchesed a new router to keep the speed even my servis provider says up to 8meg but i get only 0.98 meg but they was onist about it at the anital perch sometims i get what they sed of 1.5meg geting a up grad to morrow for free they sede up to 19.4meg

sonia07 September 2010

Just checked my broadband spped. it showed 1.46 download and 0.83 upload. we pay for up to 24mb with talktalk. another rip off

Keith Hurman07 September 2010

Have just taken the speed check resulting in a download speed of 2.68Mbps. Following this I've taken the same test will my ISP (BT) with a result of 5972Kbps. Who is right ?, I'm now confused as to what I should beleave.

Step07 September 2010

Cumbria, west coast, broadband speed rubbish a sheep in a PVC basque far faster.

Dean L07 September 2010

Pay for a upto 20 meg with unlimited download from Sky. Actual speed 3.3 meg! This has gone down from last year. I was getting 4.5 meg last year what is going on! No cable in the area where I live so no chance to upgrade.

SteveF07 September 2010

47.11 download but just 1.33 upload - upload is waaaaay slower than I expected. Virgin 50Meg broadband.

Malc07 September 2010

Have checked my broadband speed (provided by Pipex advertised at upto 8 meg) on four occasions at different times of day & am very disappointed with the results, the best I could achieve was a download speed of 3.1 mbps & upload 0.72 mbps.

Kevisere07 September 2010

My download speed is 1.7MBPS and upload is 0.2 MBPS I am using wireless and am quite a distance from the phone exchange. But I would like and expect a faster speed these days

tb07 September 2010

I'm not into tech at all but i do think that 0.45mbps downloads and 0.35mbps uploads seem slow I know we cant watch utube or any videos/messages it seem that were we live is too far from civilisation (rural east Yorkshire) but we pay the same as if we had a good connection in a town or city it doesnt seem fair, i know we coose where we live but why are we paying the same?

Tracey Fouracres07 September 2010

My download speed was 6.65mbps and my upload was 0.82mbps but I am not sure what its supposed to be anyway - but from reading other people comments its not that bad

Kathryn07 September 2010

ive just done the test and it's come back with 6.32mbps download and 0.37mbps upload!!

Dave Webb07 September 2010

Hi just tested again and best I can get is less than 1 meg. I'm with Orange and supposedly can get up to 5. Its a joke and I will be changing. Dave Webb

Andy Medley07 September 2010

Hello Im a customer of Eclipse internet a Kingston Brand from Hull, I have to say they have pushed Customers service to the limits i could not expect more from them always there to help. However i did come across a problem not long back my internet speed dropped in a big way. BT says not my fault and that im the last man on the line this could indicate errors due to time and lenth of the line. But it was the ISP's fault my account had been updated to ADSL+2 this was too fast for the line leaving me with loss of internet speed i asked to return to ADSL+ now speeds are back but nowhere near the 24Meg Speeds.

David Nutty07 September 2010

Have just completed the speed test, and not very happy. I pay £17 per month to sky, for up to 8Mbs, and just got 0.94Mbs download and 0.14 Mbs upload speed. I don't think that should be right, especially for that amount of money

kev07 September 2010

with virgin and i got 9.44mbs and .24mbs upload and im on 10mbs package.

Lisa 07 September 2010

I'm with Orange and supposed to get 8mb downloads. According to your test (tested at various times of day and night) I'm actually getting on average 1.69mbps on download and 0.36 on uploads. I'm not experiencing any problems with downloads or uploads, but I will look at an alternative supplier now, as I'm paying £19.99 for 2mb speed. (PS love the show!)

John C07 September 2010

We pay for 2 mbps and we get 6 mbps we are on O2 in Poole town centre.....

Daley ash07 September 2010

I am suposed to get upto 12mg with sky and on average when i tested my speeds on your site on several occasions the fastest i got was download 1.66 and upload 0.35 which is absolutely shocking. what can i do to help improve this ? and what can i get sky to do to help this ?

Mark196707 September 2010

On Virgin 50mb and i still get 41.5meg over wifi so very happy here.

Colin07 September 2010

Tried again, unsuccessfully to attempt speed test, so contacted my ISP, (Sky) and was told that my download speed is 128Kbps and upload was 416Kbps. However, checked an independent speed test site and found that I am getting 104Kbps D/L and 334Kbps U/L. Sky assured me that my line is now under investigation and am getting new filters sent out, as my line can apparently take 3.5Mb even though I am paying for up to 8Mb. Thinking about it though, unless you have cable, you are never going to reach speeds that are advertised due simply to poor quality and badly maintained BT lines, with feeble excuses like, your exchange is too far away. Maybe its time to take a leaf from the far east and start over from the ground up, after all, they can achieve and maintain speeds of 103Mb, although costly, it would be worth it, the information super highway actually being super. As it is, we might as well turn off our computers and return to CB radio.

mitchmonkey07 September 2010

I would like to know how BT can advertise up to 20meg download speed when they can not even give me my 8meg download speed that they promised me after complaining.

OFS07 September 2010

My ISP advertises up to 8mb downstream but a line check before I signed up showed I could get up to 0.5mb. My results from your line test show that I have 2.5mb which I am quite pleased with. This isn't anywhere near the up to 8mb they advertise but I'm happy that it has improved since I signed up with them.

Wingman S07 September 2010

If your connection is faster than 20mb then I wouldn't bother trying to check it on here during peak times, as the server on here struggles with anything beyond 20mb. I'm on 50mb but the test here shows I'm getting less than 20mb while speedtest.net gives me speeds between 18mb and 689mb quite a wide range and none of them are correct, I can see my real world download speeds in bit torrent and I'm getting around 49mb consistently. Before anyone asks yes I closed bit torrent before testing. The moral of the story is don't always trust speedtests as they are almost as misleading as ISP's using "upto" on there internet packages.

Kirk Saywell07 September 2010

We pay for 'Up to 8Mb' Broadband on an ADSL connection. On average, my download speed is 0.7Mbps and my upload speed is a poor 0.3Mbps. I have contacted my ISP 'Freedom2Surf' and they have said that my speed is poor because of my location, which is out of their control. They recommended I contacted my line provider, BT. I contacted BT and they said "There is nothing we can do to improve broadband in your area." I asked if there were any future plans to improve broadband in my area, and they replied "No, there are currently no future plans for an upgrade in your area." I am over 5km away from my exchange, there is a closer exchange just 1km away, but BT refuse to connect me to the closer exchange due to the cost involved. Returning this information to Freedom2Surf, they said "We are at no legal obligation to push BT into upgrading your area, you pay for UP TO 8Mb broadband, it is unreasonable for you to expect that speed." I commented that if it was unreasonable to expect that speed, why are they advertising it? I also said I would expect to get at least 60% of the advertised speed. They replied "Expecting 60% of the advertised speed is an unreasonable expectation. We advertise UP TO 8Mb because that is the theoretical maximum speed that any customer within the UK can expect from our service." It is shocking, and nobody is prepared to do anything about it. Last time I complained, my ISP capped my speed and I was getting just 40KB/s (0.3Mbps) download, at all times of the day for a whole month. I am on a 50:1 shared connection ratio at my local exchange FORDHAM. I live in the CO3 9TG postcode area, Colchester. It's ridiculous.

chris07 September 2010

I am presently using a dongle,with up to 3 meg of broadband speed,so when i did the test and found out i was only getting 0.09mbps of download speed and 0.04 of upload speed i was very shocked,something needs to be done where you actually get what you pay for.

Wingman S07 September 2010

@SteveF The upload speed on Virgin 50Mb should be 1.50Mb, so 1.33Mb isn't what I would consider waaaaaay slower than it should be. :)

Geoff07 September 2010

your voting poll if your broadband is faster or slower than expected. My speed from o2 is about the expected speed so your poll must be invalid.

darren07 September 2010

i have been with sky for years now and up to 3 months ago my max speed was 0.5mbs which is awful. then i sent an email saying i was thinking of just going back to dial up as speed wise there's little difference. 2 days later they got back to me asking me various things like connected cable or wifi? and how router was connected etc etc. i told them it was connected on the only socket used in the house and i've tried 7 different micro-filters, connected with ethernet cable or wifi makes little difference. they said they'd reset it at their end and to try it again, i now get max of 1mbs which is still awful but better than i'm used to. i'd love to be able to get half of the 20mbs advertised.

D. O'Neill07 September 2010

My download reading of 1.4 Mbps is about what I expected. The thing is, here in East Dorset we live so far out in the communication sticks that those around here think 'broadband' refers to the width of ones wedding band and, when we do get a problem, which, thankfully, hasn't happened now for about two years (not since I wrote my MP and created an unholy row, which got the CEO of BT involved) it can take ages to sort out, up to several weeks in the past. Our broadband comes via BT ground lines comprising both copper and aluminium wiring which, BT's engineers tell me, aren't likely to be replaced this side of the next ice age! Totally agree with your campaign for companies to drop 'Up to XX Mbps broadband'. Great show, too!

Paul07 September 2010

Dont know what all the fuss is about i`m told 20mb and I get 20mb ! Nah only kidding 1.86 I know its AOL but my downloads must be going via America !!

andrew cosgrave07 September 2010

With talk talk and on the upto 8meg broadband, done speed test 0.56meg download. sick of excuses sayin how far away from exchange, i pay the same as everyone else. whats the point in havin super tech computers when being let down by 18th century download speeds, hopefully this will be sorted in my lifetime been only 42yrs old but i wont be holding my breath....keep up the good work gadget show

ian07 September 2010

Does anyone know what the relationship between download and upload speeds should be? I'm getting 7.5 download and 1.5 upload, although the kids arn't in from school yet, so the only way is down I guess!

looney7807 September 2010

I have Virgin Media as my broadband provider. I get a download between 53-60 meg, and upload around 2 meg, this is tweeking the hell out of my laptop but i think it's worth it. i pay for the 50meg package. So i'm quite happy with my speeds.

pete07 September 2010

I have just done a speed test (three times) and am getting 5.23 this does not even run the game i play I keep getting disconected because of the signal. If i phone virgin they tell me to reboot which i've probably done a couple of times before calling them, they then tell me there is nothing wrong with my signal, can these people change things at scource because lo and behold 10 to 15 mins after giving me the runaround everything starts to work ok. Coincidence I don't think so, it's about time these people sorted out what they are being paid for before harping on about the big speeds we can get if we spend more with them

Dr.Age07 September 2010

I signed up to an 8mb service just over a year ago and the tester shows my download speed on wifi to my laptop as over 10mb. BT is my isp and their own test site http:/speedtester.bt.net shows my connection throughput speed to the same laptop over wifi as just 1.2mb. Not sure if throughput speed means the same as download speed or not. My upload speed on your tester surprised me that it was only around 0.6mb.

mark 07 September 2010

Hello , i am on BT and on the package that says upto 20 MB i get between 1 and 2 MB :( is there anything i can do to speed it up , Thanx

scott taylor07 September 2010

when i was with AOL they even told me that my line could surport faster net than i was getting quating that i should be getting 3meg i sed, will i get 3 meg for deffunt they sed yes, in facted i get a meg and harf if im luck. on top of that BT wont change my phone line as its under ground, we can hardly hear any 1 on the phone 1 of there engernaser sed it is the line as it brakes when they open the lil box and tuch the cables. i think there is a masive problem as i have to use a wheel chair to get around most places and can harldy work at all if i fall itmeans big problems for me.

Unhappy With Pipex07 September 2010

Shame on you Pipex, we pay for up to 8Mb and the best download test result is 2.18Mb and upload 0.65Mb... That is when the server is actually working that is.....

Luke07 September 2010

really bad, sky advertised as 8Mb but dowload speed tested was just 1.7Mb and the upload was just 0.5MB!

Barry Cochrane07 September 2010

i am with virgin media and they say 20meg braodband and im only getting 14 i think this is terible

Itzztictac07 September 2010

the speed check showed i had 0.24 MBPS upload and Download is that good or bad ??????????

hughes05107 September 2010

Hi I use BT Broadband at work and get 11mps wired I was thought i get around 18mps so i only get half the speed they stated

John Bratchell-Hunt07 September 2010

Oh boy! Used your speed checker twice, 9.30pm =0.35 download and 0.35 upload. Tried again at 4pm and got 0.32 download and 0.35 upload. I am using sky broadband. I live in the North of Scotland and expected it to be a bit slower but this is ridiculous

Joshua A Hirst07 September 2010

Hi, My ISP has been either BT or NTL/Virgin Media. In my area in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire I have had the correct speed consistently throughout. With my experience with NTL as it went from 1MB to 2MB, then to 4MB a second I recieved just that, also when I was using it I knew this as I downloaded from top servers which therefore; gave my maximum speed. At present time I have 10MB Virgin after being on BT, I get sometimes just that or slightly under between 9MB and 10MB. It shocked me actually to see that some people in the UK were not fairing as well, the ISP's should be honest what speed is being given out in someone's area, as some ISP's are better in some parts of the country than others, similar to mobile phone reception comparisons. Jon I do have one question, why isn't upload important? I wish ISP's would make the service for upload speeds better as I would be able to upload my files online a lot quicker to i.e. Windows Live Sky Drive. P.S. I do recommend for people to surf around and check with friends in their area to not only get the best deal in terms of cost but, also cost per MB (fastest for the price).

Keith Simpson07 September 2010

Hi All, Just ran the speed checker and was surprised to find that my speed is averaging about 11mb, and this is on a wireless router. It's 16:30 in the afternoon so was expecting the speed to drop off, will test later in the evening to see if the speed drops.

Jane Georgiou07 September 2010

1.55mbps on Sky - Rubbish! Thanks for giving me the chance to see how ripped off I am.

Sherri 07 September 2010

With Tiscali or Talk Talk now and I am promised 100.0 Mbps I got 3 on download and 0.3 on upload. I know we are in a rural area but we are only 1 mile from the telephone exchange. (Does this make a difference I was told it did?).

Tony07 September 2010

Nice simple test and awful results. I live in a village in Oxfordshire which only had broadband installed within the last 5 years. My service provider is ORANGE who claim up to 20 Mbpm speed. I have completed your test throughout the day at varying times and only get 0.42 to 0.47 download and 0.24 upload speed. Apparently, BT could only provide a certain percentage of broadband speed because, "the server is about 1 mile from the village and due to the high cost of installing fibre optic cable into the village, there will be a reduction in received signal strength". Lets hope something can be sorted out because if the line will not support a high speed internet connection (BT) then what hope have we to convince the service providers with full responsibility? Thanks for a great campaign and brilliant show anyway. Tony

Phil White07 September 2010

I pay for 10mb and my test showed a speed of 9.5mb, so can't complain .

Cheryl Ratcliffe07 September 2010

I am with Virgin and pay for the 20MB. The test last week showed an download speed of 14 and today it was only 11. A very poor service.

Brian Jordan07 September 2010

First off, great show,one of my favourites! Thanks to the entire team. ISP O2, up to 20 Mbt. Average speed i'm getting is around 16-17 Mbts, having used various speed checkers, including your own, at different times of the day. Having seen speeds others are getting, I feel I can't complain. I am within 400mtrs from a telephone exchange, so this makes all the difference. Reading some of the comments, I have noticed some people use a phone extension for their routers, which will itself slow down your speed dramaticlly. The router needs to be connected to the main telephone point,(the first one your outside line connects too as it comes into your house). Older phone lines may still have a bell wire conneced inside the telephone socket, used to make old phones ring, this causes interference, again slowing down your speed. An I-plate from BT can help with this I have been told. Where the routers sits in your house can also slow your speed, walls, chimney breasts, and so-forth can impeed your signal, or block it entirely.

eviledna107 September 2010

i am with AOL and have for the past 3 days been doing speed test as there was an issue with the speed of my download. it went from 1.3mbp to 120kbps. as told by the engineer today that came round my house to do a line test was the AOL could not fix the problem so they had been reducing my speed so i could keep the internet going although i was not aware of this until today. but it took over 6 hours on the phone with me paying for it to get some sort of help.they are now trying to solved the problem from there end. i have been speed testing on 3 different sites this site being 1 of them and have noticed that this site always gives a low reading when the others give a higher reading this may be down to the amount of people trying it or is there program bias connected with the download speed checker. ty ajay

CS07 September 2010

i am 20 mbs with virgin media and im not even reaching 1mbs

Tony07 September 2010

My download speeds are not as low as most peoples here, but they are still much lower than advertised. BT are advertising "upto 20Mbps" speeds but there is no way they can deliver that in my area. They have admitted as much on the phone during one of my complaints. What concerns me more than the actual download speeds however, is the advertising of Broadband in general. Not only are the advertised speeds blatantly exaggerated, the advertising of "Unlimited downloads" is also a blatant misrepresentation of what we are actually getting. My "unlimited" service has a limit of 100GB per month. Yes it's pretty huge, but at the end of the day, it's a limit !!! I am currently on an "upto 8Mbps" connection, and I don't get half of that during off peak, and around a quarter during peak if I'm lucky. Put these two exaggerated advertising misrepresentations together and you get one big fat lie.

Archie07 September 2010

Hi, Download speed was ok (4.37mb) (Bt says upto 20mb) But the upload speed was dreadful, (0.43mb). I am very shocked and will be getting in touch with bt forthwith to complain.

Rusty2807 September 2010

I was shocked at my speed as I am supposed to get up to 8 but I got less than 2 for download and upload was less than 2. How is it countries like South Korea have fantastic speeds? And we may be expected to possibly pay 50p on landline rentals to fund better broadband, I don't think so........ Providers already charge too much and it should come from their profits!

Simon07 September 2010

I am supposed to be on 8mb broadband from tiscali (now talktalk) I am getting just over 5 down and 0.25 up! very poor in my view ( it has become slower since Talktalk took over by about 2mb!!!)

Rob07 September 2010

Hi, was with BT broadband on the option 3 package for a few years and had 5mb ,thought that was ok due to small town area. Was chatting on phone to sky broadband and they persuaded me to move, they reduced my costs and said it was also unlimited package and from 10 to 20 mb. 2 weeks later after broadband settled down now on 11.5 MB and paying 25 pound less...its good to change : ]

steve delaney07 September 2010

Woeful connection speed of 0.54Meg but what do you expect from talk talk 'free' mobile connection

Ash07 September 2010

I used to work for a small ISP who supplied ADSL over BT telephone lines. We'd always use the BT speed checker to lookup the expected speed on phone lines and tell the potential customer what it came back as before accepting their order. From what I've gathered though, we were about the only people doing this. http://www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/adslchecker.welcome From what I can remember, even for houses right across the road from their exchange, the fastest we ever saw was 6.5-7mbps. At home I'm with Virgin Media. We were on their 10mbps service until last year when we upgraded to a package that included 20mbps broadband. Only once in that time, during a call to their technical support where they changed something, have we ever received 20mbps. Currently we have 10mbps download speeds and around 700kbps upload. Several times we have called them and they've said they have changed something and we will get the correct speed over the following few days but it never happens.

James Grant07 September 2010

I am probably one of the few people who would not quite disagree with the campaign, but feel the need to challenge a couple of views. The term 'upto' is used in many places, for example: a sale at your local store which suggests savings of 'upto' 50%. No one would dream of challenging the sales assistant because most items were, say, 10% off. Imagine if you demanded everything was 50% off, what would be said to you? There are so many variables in play when it comes down to broadband speeds seen at the PC end, that simply getting the ISP's to advertise the actual speeds people may get, is simply impossible. The following all effect the broadband speeds seen at the computer: Out of ISP's and BT's hands, within your control. 1. Your PC (network cards, USB modems, etc). 2. Your broadband connection type (wireless, cable, USB port) 3. Your router (I doubled my broadband speeds by changing my router, check if your router is ADSL2 or not). 4. The telephone cabling in your house (how many extensions, each fitted with microfilter, new or old wiring). Out of ISP's hands. 5. Cabling from your master BT socket, to the kerbside box (distance and age). 6. Distance from the kerbside box to the local phone exchange (again distance and age). 7. Network backbone in phone exchange (unbundled, 21CN, etc) 8. Line gain (if you are getting poor speeds, ask BT to up the gain) In ISP's hands. 9. Contention ratio. 10. Traffic shaping. As you can see, there alot of of variables which simply the ISP's have no control over, nor can accurately estimate. When ISP's quote you a speed that you could/should get, they are simply using a calculation based upon the distance (as the crow flies) from your address to the exchange. Who knows which way the cabling goes and therefore its precise distance to your house. I imagine that if I lived across the road from the exchange in a brand new house, in a brand new estate (ensuring new cabling), I would be annoyed if I wasn't within the 90% of the advertised speeds. Before getting annoyed with your ISP and BT, check that you have covered everything that is within your control first.

hadderz07 September 2010

we get 3.45 on ours its rubbish . its such a rip off !!

Neil07 September 2010

Same results as other people, slow compared to the upto xxmb claims of the ISPs. Surely the action to be taken is simple. Force them under trades descriptions to state 'MINIMUM OF' rather than the mythical 'UPTO'

Andrew Taylor07 September 2010

Oh my goodness!!! We already knew that, living in the countryside, we wouldn't get super-fast broadband, but this is ridiculous! When we did the test our download and upload speeds were only 0.3 mbps!!! Thankyou Sky Broadband for squeezing money out of us unnecessarily! We will definately be questioning this & perhaps moving to another (porbably only marginally better) provider!

Gary Millar07 September 2010

BT Broadband Tested 6.25pm Download 5.1Mbps Upload 0.37Mbps

Russ Palmer07 September 2010

Unbelievable -I knew that I was not getting the advertised speed but didnt realise it was this different! I am paying for "up to 20meg" with o2 and actually getting just over 2megs!! Needless to say I shall downgrade as I am actually paying more for a service that I cannot receive!

Patrick Annington07 September 2010

Hi all, Just like to agree, that the average user is not able to understand the complexity of the 'up to' prefix on all broadband speeds, however I have thought numerous times how better to explain actual speeds and am unable to find a sensible solution other than ensuring the ISP does a speed test on your line before signing a contract with said ISP. I'm afraid that as many of you will know, the speed is reliant on multiple factors, not least of which include line quality, length of line from exchange, total users on any network at any time, plus the usual on peak restrictions. With the above clear I would ask 'The Gadget Show' what exactly would you replace it with? I agree it isn't easy to understand, however it is legally correct and has no legitimate come back. Perhaps the solution would be one with a dual attack; 1. make it compulsory for ISP's to test your line for the most likely/average speed upon both on and off peak. 2. educate users of the simple fact that these can only be the best case scenario. Please, if anyone has a more understandable and consistent solution, please let me know as this is of great interest to me. Many thanks, A Computer Over-user...

John Gilbertson07 September 2010

ISP: BT. For the past 3 years I have been consistently getting 7mbps on a line that supports 8mbps. Recently bt have upgraded my local exchange quoting speeds of up to 11mbps. Once 'upgrade' was done I was only connected at 5mbps on an 8mbps capable line - clearly my bandwith has been throttled. Called indian technical support who lied to me saying my service had not been throttled and I have never had a faster speed. a month later and I am now connected at 4mbps. Some upgrade..... some service....

Chris07 September 2010

What part of "up to" is so difficult to understand? What is it about broadband that makes it difficult to understand that the speed you get varies? I think the current advertisements are perfectly clear. I've just shopped around for a new ADSL supplier and every provider I looked at gave me an estimate of the actual speed they'd expect me to get on my line (which were all pretty much what I get now) - before I even got close to signing up. As I can only get around 7M download it gives the choice to opt for a cheaper service, and choose "up to 8M" rather than "up to 20M". So some sensible advice (as opposed to skewed Gadget Show journalism) - if you are getting slow speeds on an "up to 20M" service, ask your provider if they have a cheaper package for up to 8M - if they do you could easily save around £5/m. You're only being ripped off if there's a slower product available and you've been sold a more expensive, faster service that you can't realistically use. You sign up for broadband and as a general rule you'll get it at the fastest speed supported by your telephone line/exchange.

simon pollard07 September 2010

3,4mb download and 0.7mb on upload. Rubbish! And this is with BT. Can't see how anyone else can be faster since they all use BT lines. Don't the adverts for BT make the point that BT are fast and never disconnect., LIE well from my experience anyway

Anneliese07 September 2010

After enduring over a year of mobile broadband via a dongle - it's lovely to actually be able to download stuff so fast - I found the dongle dreadfully slow & quite often gave up in disgust when trying to get emails etc! So I'm pretty happy with my speed - naturally it's nowhere near the 'up to 20eg available'

RobC07 September 2010

Currently on Virgin L (10mb) cable broadband and my speed test (at 1900hrs) is coming back at 09.48mbps so I'm reasonably impressed... just trying to find out about the supposed trial of 100/200mb internet here in coventry as I've heard its already been trialled in kent, if true, those speed would be awesome...

Simone Metcalf07 September 2010

Hi, i've just tested my broadband speed and was shocked to see that i pay for 20mb but only receive half of what I pay for. Thank you for showing me how much i'm getting ripped off.

Tony Sloggett07 September 2010

Well I have to say your speed test is both disappointing and misleading, I've tried it now five times (once at 2am) and I did a comparison with www.speedtest.net, and your speed test is consitently at least 3-4 times slower, I cant believe that this is simply due to site traffic, it just a poor service. Now I'm all for making ISP's be honest about what you can get from them, I've been an internet user since dial up modem days (9600 baud dial up modem days) and it has always been a frustration. However your speed test is only likely to cause more resentment than ISP's actually deserve, just reading these posts above, there are a lot of people who are extremely disappointed with thier internet speed using your tester. I think in the interest of balance you should not just encourage them to use another test, you should force them, or you should also do some sort of deal with the likes of speedtest.net so that a much more accurate and fair assesment can be done.

Charly MCVey07 September 2010

I have to say I have been nothing but impressed with my ISP, Pipex. (Whom I have Been With For 9 Years) I was told I would get 5.5mb on my phone line when I first took out the 8mb deal. That was some time ago, possibly 3yrs? Anyways I got exactly that and at any time of the day. Since then it has got better and I regularly see 8mb off Peak. I just tested it just now at 7.05pm as I know this is a Busy time and I got 6.2mb down and 230kbs upload. I will test again in the morning and also this evening late on to see what I get :-)

Peter Manning07 September 2010

I am reasonably happy with my connection speed (with Sky) - however the up to 20MB is false considering I can see the exchange from my apartment (yes it is THAT close) - I really expect to have a lot faster than 8MB download...and less than 1MB upload.... Although saying that it's not bad and I cannot really complain...I was more disapointed that the gadget show website could not handle the traffice last night!

Mark07 September 2010

I have stayed with BTTotal broadband for many years, I had around 2/3 MB of the advertised 8 meg service. I have followed all of their recommendations, except being limited by a cable connection- there are 4 of us in the house with wifi laptops, I have added there upgraded socket and in the last month they have upgraded the exchange as a result I now get on average 5 MB. so it clearly is possible for the provider to improve the level of output, they now need to get to 8MEG!

Sophie 07 September 2010

Well, lucky me I get 1.6 download speed! That is from Karoo (Kingston upon Hull) who advertise themselves as the UK's fastest broadband supllier!!! Someone please help us here as we have no other choices.

Anonymous07 September 2010

hey, i was so suprised to see that our network (TalkTalk) said that our broadband speed is up to 21 mps when our broadband was actually ONLY 1 mps. I am definitly considering complaining about the speed of our broadband and the price we are paying for it! Its stupid!!!!

Will07 September 2010

On Virgin PC. Download at 1.25Mbps. Upload at 0.47Mbps Laptop (Wireless) Download at 1.39Mbps. Upload at 0.41Mbps

Colin07 September 2010

I have 30 years experience using computers and 22 years working in the computer / electronics industry. From the humble ZX81 to modern server production. I have witnessed the rise and fall of many computer giants, as well as some of the mistakes that other companies have made. The technological advancements in this time has in my opinion been astounding, the computing power and capabilities, storage capacities moving from 5.25 inch disks to USB, A.I., full immersion video and nano technology. But, in the UK, all of this advancement has been hindered by the fact that broadband (for most), is a let down. It seems that unless BT lines and exchanges are overhauled and upgraded, we are all doomed to suffer slow speeds and connection failures.

kelvin07 September 2010

as already described by some of the comments here, i just tested my speed straight through the modem and its 10 mb spot on as described by virgin.media, via the wi-fi router was 6.8 know how ill be downloading in future

Damien07 September 2010

Hi guys, i have just finished my sixth day of testing on three different sites. ( this site and the other two suggested ) i'm on the basic virgin package 10Mb, but pay a little extra for a dedicated bandwidth regardless of time of day. The results (with the same type of testing) i achieved before this were only half of the advetisised speed (4.8mb) with worst times being during high demand. Now the tests have averaged out at 9.2. with a few of the times topping the speed i've paid for. No complaints on this point. I'm still unsure if paying for the dedicated bandwidth is worth it. I am lucky in that i'm less than 20 metres from the street exchange and less than 1500yds from the main exchange. This does have an effect on the average speeds you can get. i have a friend at the other end of my street ( a further 800 yds away ) and her average speeds on the same basic package is 8.4mb. Interesting to note.

Peter07 September 2010

I have recently returned to AOL Platinum with the promise of 24mps but guess what - the best speed acheived so far is measely 7.7mps. I have no douby that those who are lucky enough to be very close to their telephone exchange or have optical cable to the house can achieve the advertised speed but the vast majority of subscribers are connected through BT copper cable which significantly slows the signal. While I applaude the campaign to raise awareness of the differential between advertised speeds and delivered speeds I think it is being directed at the wrong people. The felons are BT in the slow conversion to optical cable throughout the country. The work has been sub-contracted to other installers and is being grossly mismanaged. POKE BT in the eye and wake them up!!

Mike07 September 2010

Virgin Media 10Megs regularly gives me around 9.5Megs over my WiFi connection even at peak times.

Andy07 September 2010

Not only about what I expected, but also about what my provider said I could reasonably expect this far from the exchange. They were honest and told me this when I signed up about two years ago. These paragons of virtue? "Be" I recommend them without reservation.

jamie07 September 2010

affter testing i was shocked to find out that my speed averaged 2.8 im paying for 10 complaint sent! thanks to the gadget show for pointing this out!

Simon Wood07 September 2010

Hi Jon My connection is 10meg off the possible 20meg which sky advertised on the t.v. when we switched to sky we had a few issues with the phone so we had to have the B.T phone man over to fix it and he tested the internet. He said the highest we could expect our internet to be (He tested this whilst he was at the house) was around 13meg. now sky said on the T.V "Up to 20Meg super fast broadband speed" but we only have 13meg and, heres the con part, the B.T man said we could get 13Meg around 1'o'clock ish during weekdays when people are at work. but durings evenings and and weekends it can drop down to around 8meg. Now i found this annoying and miss interpretaded on the T.V and when I have my own place (Currently live with parents) i will consider going with virgin who stick close to there connection promises and no change during the day with speed!!! I hope you have time to read this John because the internet package that we have is with the sky package which you see advertised on the T.V and the installation and the problems we had with the phone line was a nightmare and took 3 weeks to finally resolve!!

Colin07 September 2010

Laughably slow, up to 8 meg my arse, more upsetting as Talk Talk contacted me to say they were putting up the price as the speed was going to be increased, what liars! Good Campaign, best of luck! Colin

Fiona07 September 2010

Ours was pretty good, i think we pay for 10megs, we get 9.5megs when there is only one person on the network, but at times there can be 5 people on our home network and at them times i only get 1.4megs. honestly my laptop has been slower when getting the 9.5megs so i dont really notice the difference. but i was surprised that we get pretty much what we pay for :)

Tom Collins07 September 2010

2.88 download when I was expecting 8. Disappointing but having said that I've never had any problems streaming good quality video and I'm not a big file downloader.

ror07 September 2010

my ips says i get up to 25meg but i get 1.2meg

Robyn07 September 2010

Hi! I just took the broadband test. It said our download speed was 0.19, yet we are sposed to get 2! Its disgusting and we are definatly NOT getting what we pay for! I rarely use this laptop because it is painfully slow, so I usually use my playstation (which seems ok).

john07 September 2010

with talktalk test twice so far 9.30am 1.5 download. odd at 8.30 pm found .54 downlond

sean...07 September 2010

When doing the test I was monitoring the speed over my WLAN interface using a network utility which graphs the speeds coming in and out of my WLAN port every 0.10 secs. The downlink speed you said I had was 6.8Mbps when actually I was getting 7.3Mbps and my uplink speeds were also out, as you were saying I was only getting 0.9Mbps when I was actually getting 1.3Mbps. Can you see the irony in your speedtest site... LOL :)

zulfikar07 September 2010

im with 02 broadband supposedly i am supposedly getting 17mbps BUT around 5 that appalling please gadget show and the lovely Suzy perry (shes fit) make them change their ways and offer more that they should instead of ripping us off

Andrew Mc07 September 2010

I am paying for "up to 10Mb" got a results of 9.57Mbps(14:30pm) and 9.45Mbps(20:20) today. My isp is virgin. I wasn't surprised as i have never had a problem with my connection. I have always told people they should get virgin BB if they can as i think it is the best ISP available.

ashleigh07 September 2010

is 8.99mbps good or bad..i'm not that great with tings like this? any help?

James07 September 2010

should be getting 24mbs only getting 1.15mbs :(

Bob Woods07 September 2010

I am with Virgin Media and paying for 20mb and getting 18.5mb a lot higher than I expected. Sometimes its as low as 10mb.but depends when I use it.

balbicus07 September 2010

my laptop is running at 9.6 mps just short of the 10 offered by virgin well satisfied.

dan07 September 2010

I get upto 10mb with virgin and test showed 9.55mb so quite accurate really

R.Duffin07 September 2010

I have just got VIRGIN and my download speed is 0.12 and upload speed is 0.35 Have tryed to complain but just get held in a quee

cyberbob1uk07 September 2010

Ive got virgin media 10meg, tested laptop on wifi and got 9.58meg - happy with that, only 0.29 on upload though

Rosmary07 September 2010

I have VIRGIN and only get 0.12 download and 0.35 upload If somebody walks in front of the router it goes completly.

Gary Cowland07 September 2010

I have just run speed test at 20:48 and returned an download of 9.13meg. Consider I only have a 10meg link I would say that is spot on, and that is on a wireless connection.

Tim Chadfield07 September 2010

My broadband package is advertised as up to 10Mb, yet I get around 3Mb. The company I use (you can easily guess which) brags about how it has 'invested billions building our fibre optic network' to bring 'advanced broadband' (that's what they quote on their web site at least and I'm sure the TV adverts give a similiar impression). Fiber optic cables are are ridiculously fast. True. But I get the feeling they probably have 1 meter of fibre optic cable used somewhere in the entire network so they can use that advertising slogon and the billions (billions?) spent was used on the advertising campaign. 3Mb was what I expected, but that's only because I know to take any broadband speed adverts to be an oportunity to use unrelastic figures to blind people that can't rely on past experience dealing with internet service providers. Extra insult is that the only way to find out how fast their systems work is to sign up, pay and find out afterwards. I think ISPs have been taking incredible liberties with their specification of broadband speeds and I hope OFCOM find a way to put them in line. Can you imagine having to buy a car that does 'up to 120mph' only finding it does only 5mph? Can you imagine having to buy a battery that will last 'up to 5 hours' when it lasts 5 minutes? Companies with other products have found ways to more reliably estimate and demontrate how much much you get for your money so why do ISP's seem to shrug this obligation? It's not as simple as 'measuing a piece of string', but utilising spot checks from existing customers you'd imagine they can give more realistic estimates? Thanks for doing this Gadget Show! Hope this makes a difference!

Gary Cowpland07 September 2010

I have just run speed test at 20:48 and returned an download of 9.13meg. Consider I only have a 10meg link I would say that is spot on, and that is on a wireless connection.

Gary Cowland07 September 2010

I have just run speed test at 20:48 and returned an download of 9.13meg. Consider I only have a 10meg link I would say that is spot on, and that is on a wireless connection. I forgot to mention my ISP is Virgin Media,

stephen free07 September 2010

o2 promised me up to 20 meg speeds and on wireless (wi-fi) i get 3.2 meg!

Dan Standish07 September 2010

Just under 7meg not quite the 'UPTO' 20 meg I'm supposed to get, fair enough Sky have upgraded my connection for free, well as long as you can get through to customer services to ensure you dont have to pay for the unlimited download (which I got bored of attempting) as I dont need more than the free amount as I dont download a massive amount the 'free 20 meg' upgrade sounded great. Maybe I have not quite been upgraded yet but when I was only paying for 5 meg this is highly unlikely. Where is the I think, please forgive me if I'm wrong, the 1000meg in Soul? Yeah Burger King now has introduced WIFI to most of their restaurants, whos next in the common courtesy of WIFI?

matt 07 September 2010

im gutted i pay virgin for 10mb download just done this test. 6.5 download and 0.44 upload, what a joke, think i will be calling them.

fez07 September 2010

When I switch from virgin to sky, BT had problems with with the connection at the exchange. After a lot of tooing and frowing Sky cancelled the service with BT and 3 days later request a new connection. BT installed a new card at the exchange. With Virgin I only got 6.8. BT line checker said I would only get 6.8. However after the 'New Card' at the exchange I now get nearly 3 times the speed; as your test shows... The exchange is the problem, but BT are rolling out new cards...

dave07 September 2010

where's the option for " as fast as i expected " in the poll. i've got 50mb and got 48mb average in the test, which is the same as when virgin test it when they installed it.

Conny07 September 2010

Download 2.82 and upload .37. This is with BTs unlimited broadband-offering speeds of up to 20 Meg. I am supposed to receive between 5 and 8 download speed! With a minimum of 3meg! They are very happy to accept my money but cant get their part of the contract right.

pete07 September 2010

live in hull,can only have karoo broadband as they wont allow anyone else in so they give us no choice on what we can have.

Paul07 September 2010

I am well disappointed, O2 says 8 Meg, speed test says down load 50kb/s!!! upload 360kb/s. I also did comparison with Broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk. Their results were 1856 kb/s download and 356kb/s upload. Why is there such a large difference in download speed results?? My experience when using itunes is more like 50kb/s download as the gadget show tester reports.

pete07 September 2010

speed was slow as i thought live in hull so can only have karoo broadband so we have no choice on who to go with.

Peter07 September 2010

I just want to complain that the gadget shows Broadband campaign is just as bad and misleading as the ISP's advertising. ADSL broadband is a complex technology and is never explained properly to the consumer. I have never heard anybody talk about line contention (the fact that consumer lines in the uk are contended 50:1 ie. you share your bandwidth from the exchange with 50 other people). The fact that the only way to check speed is by looking at the routers connection status and that this bandwidth is only between the router and the local dslam. Online speed checkers are extemely rough guidelines only and there are far to many factors involved. Please get someone on your show to explain properly how this technology works!!

Paul Davies07 September 2010

Hi john, I am with Talk Talk and it says i should be getting upto 24meg, but i rarely get past 4meg. I am on the top tariff and at 9.30pm only got 1.27meg. I dont care what they claim we should be getting,more the fact i demand a better speed for the price iam paying!

John Cunningham07 September 2010

Utterly pathetic - tested once at 21.30 - so this should be the worst anyway - but this was awful... Download - 0.41Mbps Upload - 0.11Mbps This is a joke - right?

Ross07 September 2010

Just completed the test. 0.4 and 0.32. Unfortunately it's about what I expected. It's always incredibly slow, no matter what time of the day. It took an eternity to access the Gadget Show page!

Dave Irvine07 September 2010

I'm still looking for that car that will do "up to 500 mph and 300mpg" ! How is that these guys can get away with such adverts. Surely LEGALLY they should only be able to say "Guaranteed minimum of ?? Mbps". Why is this cop-out allowed ?

Graeme Carstairs07 September 2010

These speed test are wildly inaccurate the fastest I have ever achieved on one is 4-5Mbps. I have an up to 8Mbit connection from Eclipse, and consistently get 800KBps or approx 8MBps. As of now the result on your test was 2.95MBps, and I now connecting to my news service over 10 SSL connections and getting a speed of 825KBps.

Clive07 September 2010

I'm with Virgin cable and have an up to 20 meg broadband connection. Using TBB I got around 13 meg at 21:30 tonight, Tuesday 7th September. Using Speedtest.net, I get at least 20% higher. I also have Pipex up to 8 meg and I obtain around 6 meg. It seems to be very variable with time of day, and the actual day of the test, ie a weekday or weekend test . When I first had Virgin about 3 months ago, I was getting nearly 20meg, using Speedtest.net, TBB was a lot slower.

Luke Burns07 September 2010

I'm in student accommodation in Manchester, where the accommodation offers you to sign up with a company called Keycom and their 'keysurf' service if you want access to the internet in your room. They offered three different packages, I chose the 8mb one. A nice surprise then when the test gave me a download speed of 8.13 mb! I'm glad that's the case though because the £150 annual price tag is pretty steep for a student! Worth saying as well that my connection is wired.

viki07 September 2010

We live in a small village in the country two miles away from the nearest town/exchange and our download/upload speeds are reminiscent of the bad old days of dial-up! 0.13 and 0.23 respectively! Supposed to be 'up to 8mb' according to BT, my router spends a lot of the time flashing its orange icon for no signal at all here.

Joe Oberle07 September 2010

I've had 2 broadband suppliers at my current address, the first was Sky and I was getting around 1.2-1.7meg download speeds. I swapped to O2 as they offered a preferential deal to O2 mobile customers. I have to say that the whole experience was outstanding, for the following reasons 1) They did not claim an up to speed. They do an on line test based on your No and then offer you their expected speed. 2) They sent text messages at every stage of the process from accepting the order to delivery of the router 3) They sent a text apologising and offering a cancellation of the contract as they we're concerned that they had over estimated the download speed, they also said they would do everything they could to improve the speed (Originally quoted 2.5meg, then said may only be 2meg) 4) Since activation the speed has got better and better, I get 6.7meg off peak and on the test today 5.5meg at peak times, upload is a little over 1meg 5) Customer service / payments team, are excellent. (Just so that you don't think that I work for O2, I can also tell you that my experience with O2 for my mobile broadband was almost a total opposite, with poor communication and terrible customer service)

Chris Petty07 September 2010

Can we start a campaign for a speed tester that's up to the job this one was giving half the speed that speedtest.net reported a minute later, could be misleading people into thinking they are getting a slower speed than they get on average. To get a true test of the connection speed from your house to the exchange you are better using www.speedtester.bt.com , does not work for Virgin. This gives the true connection speed these other testers are really testing the congestion of the ISPs network and their connection to the testers. I guess if you need maximum speed all the time you'll need business account with no contention.

Mike Fuller07 September 2010

9.4Mbs download over WiFi on a 10Mbs Virgin Media Cable connection - very happy and glad I'm not with BT. ps Where's the poll you refer to?

womble07 September 2010

I'm with ViginMedia and just achieved an 8.83 download (twice) on my (XP) laptop while also downloading on my Ubuntu PC, bia my 10 mb service....... not bad!!! (At 22:08)

James07 September 2010

iv'e just done a quick survey and found that on average changing your ISP WILL NOT change your broadband speed. it all depends on how far away from the exchange you are. if you are like us and you are on the limit you will get speeds of les than 1mbps.

Jonathan Town-Jones07 September 2010

Just playing catch up on the Gadget Show, and was straight on the pc when the campaign came on about download speeds. I'm with Sky, and they claim to be upto 20mb..... however I'm getting on average 4.16! Ouch! Yes there are factors, I'm wireless but only 6ft away from the router! I've read other comments..... but what is a consumer to do? Complain? I'm guessing its a standard reply... its where you live and the distance from some box! Feeling hard done to!

Mark07 September 2010

im with virgin who said i would get 10 megs download speed, your test has confirmed this to be so. pleased

Wilko07 September 2010

After doing this test I looked into uprating my wireless router to a faster "N" type but read that you would need a USB stick "N" WIFI receiver as my laptops internal card was A,B,or G. But in doing so found that it was set on A, once I changed my internal card via device manager (in control panel) my broadband speed has gone from 2mb on average up to 6mb+!!!!!!!!!! Thank you Gadget Show

John07 September 2010

9.43 Mbps (down); 0.47 Mbps (up) Virgin Media (Wired) 9.46 Mbps (down); 0.47 Mbps (up) Virgin Media (Netgear Wireless Router) Tried it at different times. As it is in Flash, I can't try it on my Macbook or iPad.

lee07 September 2010

i`m with sky at the moment and i`m supposed to get upto 20 but i`ve tested it before and was lucky to get 2 out of it and that was at 4am... i`m going to virgin media when my contract with sky is up ... super fast broadband mmmmm super duper lies on the advert

Matt07 September 2010

My broadband speed is lower than expected, but only if I use your speed checker. I have used three others I googled, which ALL give the same speed of about 9.6 Mbps. Yours only gives a maximum of 5.6 and I've done it three times (the lowest being 3.3). What gives?

Bob Love07 September 2010

You may have managed my expectations too well, but I got 5.77mbs from an advertised 8.0mbs,which was a bit better than I would have guessed, based on recent commentary. My ISP is Sky.

robstocks07 September 2010

i'm currently paying for 'up to' 20mb speeds and i'm only recieving 6 , the question i have is why cant i pay for 8 or 10 and get the same speed ???

itfcbob07 September 2010

Hi, Virginmedia "up to" 10mb and my download speed was 9.6mb up load 2.5mb which I was impressed with, and done the test on my laptop wi-fi. So no complaints here.

Dave Hunt07 September 2010

I've been paying Sky for many years now for UP TO 20 meg. I've got 2.54, quite a difference.Funny that when they were offering 5meg for free when I first enquired it was not available apparently the more expensive 20meg option was the only one available in my area? It wouldn't have been so bad if there had been any improvement over the years but none at all. I did the test last year with the same poor result. This is like obtaining money under false pretencess or by deception!!

Relentless07 September 2010

Hi John, I use BT Broadband via Yahoo. My rated speed is 10MBits. I ran the test at intervals between 09:30 and 23:30 today. My speed varied between 9.2Mbits and 9.7Mbits and my upload (via ethernet cable) ranged between 0.7 and 0.9Mbits. My conclusion is not a bad service I am getting.

Jordan33307 September 2010

i am with sky connect and pay £17 pound a month, my internet does try and get up to the advertised 8 mg but only in off peak hours. peak time i usually get less then 1meg due to throttling :(

mick07 September 2010

we are on virgin just broadband meant to be 10 mg but iv never had 10 iv try your speed tester and at diffrent times never get over 9ish

Simon Hutchings07 September 2010

I'm getting just over 6mps on a promise of 8mbps which does drop at peak load. It is very frustrating to get less than you think you're paying for. However, being on ADSL, I know that the performance I get depends on how far I am from the exchange, how many other ADSL users are sharing the same link and how much those users are using at any one time. I also think we need to be more constructive and tell the ISPs how we want the service measured and demand Service Level Agreements that they will commit to. So I think we should be asking for minimum performance at peak times. i.e. I don't want "up to 8mbps" - I want "Minimum of 6mbps at peak". I also think this should be independently monitored to ensure the ISPs achieve the SLA and put in the appropriate investment as required. What does anyone else think?

paul gregory07 September 2010

most isps in my area advertise upto 20 or 24mb download speeds no matter what plan your on,but alas you don't get those speeds.i'm with sky and get at best 12mbs but then thats better than talktalk who i was with a month or so ago,i was getting just short of 10mbs,but both sky and talktalks upload speeds are the same around 0.85mbs.to be honest i think by law they should provide what they are selling,otherwise keep their gobs shut,theres nowt down for false claims.

Suzuki108 September 2010

Hi John I'm using an Apple imac (leapard) I have done your test twice with the same results. My down load speed is 1.45 and my Upload is 0.23 with Talk Talk. I feel if the provider can't give an accurate figure on your uploads and downloads, The user should only be charged for the small amount provided, giving value for money; thus not paying for something the provider can't provide.

Stormin Ben08 September 2010

9.5MB download and 0.49MB upload Pretty much bang on what I'm told I'll be getting Reason why? Coz I'm nothing to do with the antiquated, out of touch, couldn't give a damn BT network that ALL other providers are forced to use I'm with Virgin cable Doesn't matter who they are or what they claim, ALL the other ISPs have to run over cables &infrastructure provided by BT. It is this bunch of cowboys this campaign needs to be targeting not the ISP's themselves who are needlessly hamstrung

Maarvy08 September 2010

My isp virgin media is exelent . I get the speed I pay for almost all the time , at the moment I pay for 10 mb and speed test 99/100 times bang on 9.5 mb . The " Up to " Tag line needs to go from isp ad's but since its the only thing covering up the fact that most isp's are providing your high speed internet down 1960's low speed wires they will keep using it as long as possible

Dominic Carter08 September 2010

My result was: 6.93mb/s download speed and my upload was: 0.71mb/s. My ISP Provider is TalkTalk and they said we could get 'up to' 24mb/s. But, I just did a test on oir line to tell me what maximum speed I could achieve and the result was a miserable 18mb/s. (They did not tell what upload speeds I could achieve when I signed up :(

Mike Smith08 September 2010

The poll should include an option 'My speed is what I expected' because broadband speed is not just down to the ISP but the telephone line that delivers the broadband service and how far away you are situated from your nearest telephone exchange. I am with BT who advertise speeds of up to 20mbps but they told me I could only get a maximum of 7 mbps because of my location. On test I am getting an average of about 6.7mbps through a wireless connection, so it's roughly what I was expecting and downloads a web page in approximately 1 second which is really quick for that kind of broadband speed. I'm quite happy with that and BT were upfront in telling me the true speed I could expect so no real complaints.

GrubbySeismic08 September 2010

Good to see The G Team championing what I think is an unofficial offshoot of the Plain English Campaign! I tried all three links, but this is really not peak time. About 7M down (tests were between 6.5 and 8.5) and a still shocking but expected 0.5M up. I like someone's comment earlier: if you're worred about speeds and have had your modem (courtesy of your ISP) for a long while, insist they give you another! Someone else commented that the "Captcha" words were illegible: one of mine wasn't even a word! They can be spoken by this plugin though...

David08 September 2010

Wow whata can I say? I just did the speed test and got a dismal 5.3 through my wired 'wireless' router. (The wireless bit stopped working a while ago) I used to get 7.3 when it was wireless. I need to get me a 'working' wireless router again! lol

Noexpert08 September 2010

My average results are 3.2 during the day and 3 in the evenings. I am on an up to 8 connection, but BT's line tester said I should in theory get 1.5! I used to get around 1 to 1.5 until I purchased and installed a BT iPlate or BT Broadband Excelerator as they are called now. It has made a vast improvement for my connection doubling it. May be worth a try. They are widely available on the internet and for a tenner or so why not. Sorry but it is funny that one of the adverts on the Gadget Show site is for BT with an "up to" slogan......................

rcdicky08 September 2010

Appreciate what the gadget show is trying to do but there's no "what you expected" choice. I'm on the 50mb plan with Virgin Media and the speed test gave me 47mb/s when I tested, which I think is fine. I appreciate people having up to 8mb and only getting 2mb (or less) is unfair, but I don't think anyone will ever get the actual speed. 8mb on an 8mb advertised plan, 24mb on a 24mb advertised plan. Just don't think BB works like that

Tanya08 September 2010

My package is "up to 20Mb". BT tell me the max possible for my line is 2.8Mb. With Sky I'm getting 4Mb capped - could get around 5Mb but my line is deteriorating and causing errors and BT washed their hands of it. Perhaps rather than this campaign (what are you going to get ISP's to say INSTEAD of "up to"?!), you should start one that forces BT to upgrade telephone lines - they check to make sure they are "within guidelines", but the guidelines were put together BEFORE broadband - as far as BT are concerned, as long as you can get a speed over 0.25Mb, your line is adequate.

Tim Medlock08 September 2010

Hi all I am with vigin media my broadband speed was only 0.5 Mb slower than wath i am paying for so this is not too bad. when I was with BT my speed was 9.5 Mb slower, I was told that this was because of the distance from the main out let.

Smileyman08 September 2010

Living in a village with only BT as an option for cable connection, I struggled for 2 years to get better speed from the broadband they provide! After 3 visits from BT engineers I was told it would be 15 years before they would replace the old copper/aluminium cable from the exchange, so speeds of 700-900 Kbps was the best I was getting. I wish they would stop lying to the public about how they are rolling out 20Mb BROADBAND postcode lottery!!!! Now switched to T-Mobile and at least get 2Mb Bliss, and that's exactly what T-Mobile tell you what to expect! Come on other ISPs be more HONEST!!

Keith Ware08 September 2010

Just upgrade on Orange billing via BT landline from 2 meg to 20meg the saleman said I would get 20meg for £2 month less. I said, that I would not expect to bust 7 meg, I was right and they are saleman! just tested on your site got 6.5meg which what I get everytime I test. I am a Virginmedia field tech working West Sussex unfortunatly the network has a gap from Worthing to Emsworth with little to no chance of every getting Virgin Media broadband where I live. Shame as the 10meg everywhere in West sussex makes 9.5 the 20 makes 18 and the 50meg makes 49meg. But the uploads on all networks are poor and maybe your show should poke this sensitive issue too!

Simon Lunn08 September 2010

I am paying for the complete Sky package with the advert from Sky stating that I can get 'up to 20mb' - I live less than a mile from my local exchange and I only get just under 8mb. Less than half of what I am paying for. Not happy at all with the speed I am getting. Which is a shame as apart from that Sky as an ISP has been very good so far.

Bruce Thompson08 September 2010

Holy CRUD how slow? 0.17 mbps download and 0.35 upload..My old ZX81 could have done better .

Dane 08 September 2010

I'm with virgin on cable and am almost always around the speed I expect. Test came out at 19 Mb on a 20 connection, non too shabby :-)

Kevin Stevens08 September 2010

BT Vision, What BT Vision, its not as fast as they advertise! I have just moved home within Hemel Hempstead and went fully over to BT with all of my services including BT Vision and as Normal, I should get “Up To 20 Meg” connection Speed! As the Bird Fly’s, I live 1 mile from the BT Switch and was told by BT that I should get between 5.5 to 6 Meg download speed for my area. Then, I was told by the person that I could have Fibre Optic to the house and as again, “Up To 40 Meg” connection speed, but for where I am, I would expect 18 Meg download speed. I asked how much would this be, and was told she did not know any more information and I would have to call back and speak to the Department which deals with Fibre Optic? Good Old BT, No Department can speak to each other, it’s so difficult to get any problem resolved, and BT does not care. I have since found out from an engineer, that the fibre optic just goes to a local BT Box, then standard cable to the house! I have now carried several tests and the best speed that I can get is 3.7 Meg download speed, and 0.8 upload speed. BT Vision, too much fog clouding what BT can actually deliver! The advertised Speed should be what they can deliver and not what they can actually supply!

Christian Le Cornu08 September 2010

I must say I am very pleased with the speeds I'm getting and always have got. no matter what part of the island i live in no matter which isp I use the speeds are always the same or in some cases faster than advertised. no complaints here! i'm using Sure cable & wireless in Jersey Channel Islands. (its worth pointing out tho that our MAX speed in Jersey regardless of ISP is 8meg.

krishan08 September 2010

I feel really disappointed, i thought going with Virgin i would have a true 10mb speed, but even when i have called them in the past with my concerns that i didnt think it was running at 10 mb, they said it was and is running at 10mb, This test just confirms that they will say anything to you. shouldnt i get 50% of my money back if I'm get 50% of my speed. you would hope so in a ideal world. Thanks

iain 08 September 2010

Im with VRIGN XL up to 20mb and was shocked when i run the test last night at 20:30 4 times i ran the test to make sure i was seeing it right and was getting 18.45mb/s right upto 19.02mb/s so iam happy but still shocked

James08 September 2010

I live in a village Cornwall and pay BT for 20 MBPS and although they said I would probably get 1.5 MBPS what I actually get is between 0.25 MBPS and 0.55 MBPS, what annoys me is that they still charge me full price for a service they cannot supply and that they have a super fast connection in Cornwall but it goes directly to London. Funny how BT's director managed to get full broadband in his village?????

paul162208 September 2010

UNDERSTATED....I am on BT 2mb, I have now conducted the test throughout the day and evening and my best results were 0.47 and 0.36......i am so underwhelmed. what can you say?

Gavin08 September 2010

I took on virgins 20mb as i'm an avid x360 gaming, yet avg out at 12/15mb. Thinking of just downgrading to 10mb and save my money! Seems shame as was considering going upto 50...or do they hold bandwidth for these specific users!?

steven walton08 September 2010

Hi all. I never miss an episode of the gadget show, so I was interested about the broadband speed item. I'm with sky, and apparently I get UP TO 20mbps. Ubelievable then when I took the speed test on the website and found I was getting 5.77mbps. How Sky can justify this I don't know. I want to thank you for bringing this out in the open, and hopefully something can be done. Steve Walton.

Keith Lynn08 September 2010

Carried out the test using your system. The results - Download 2.24 Mbps & Upload 0.36 Mbps, when my ISP provider AOL states up to 20MB. Very poor. Currently paying £20 per month... Luckily my contract is finishing in a few day. Also checked other ISP providers in my area & they are getting upto 6MB.

Jenny08 September 2010

We are with sky and supposedly get up to 20mb. i did the test at 9pm and 9am and it was 3.4mb and 4.5mb! that is outrageous. no where near what i am paying for. something really needs to be done about this. i am shocked and appalled by this.

Ken Jones08 September 2010

Amazing difference between morning and night, last night down load was 1.7 and this morning was 11.3, how can you have such a difference!

Roger Hancock08 September 2010

Speed 1.89mb. About what expected but ISP seems twice as fast as BT. Live in rural area c5 miles fron exchange. Service is pretty poor as advertised at 10mb. Local area investigating community fibre optic option at cost of £125 a head. not unreasable if claimed 100mb ever likely to be achieved. Agree ISPs should make likely speeds much clearer

iain corrigan08 September 2010

I think it is important to differentiate between cable/copper broadband and radio based broadband (not mentioned in the speed tester 'issues to be aware of'). I am one of many people who have ditched their landline and hence a cable/copper based broadband in favour of 3G radio based broadband. 3G throughput is based on additional factors, such as overall users, voice and data and coverage levels.

JohnD08 September 2010

I'd suggest that a lot of people getting really slow speeds are running the test with a poor wifi connection - that's not your ISP's fault, try plugging a cable into your router and re-running the test. And as others have pointed out, the Gadget Show test is consistently slower than Speedtest.net More practical advice - unless you have a choice between ADSL and cable companies every ISP you try will give you more or less the same connection speed - the limitation is your phone line not the ISP. And on a practical note, there's more to a broadband connection than the raw speed. There's also things like contention ratios (the number of other people using the same equipment in the exchange), traffic shaping (e.g. your ISP prioritising your BBC iPlayer traffic over someone downloading a pirate copy of a film), and reliability (who wants a connection that actually fails frequently). I could buy an Aston Martin with an advertised top speed of 180mph, could I actuallt drive it at that speed? No. But I've not been ripped off because there's more to it than just a theoretical max speed.

Kevin Kaley08 September 2010

Interesting! So BT advertises speeds up to 20mb and charges £28 per month plus line rental, then when I use their own speed test it says my estimated connection speed is 1mb. I also ran sppedtest.net which showed 2.9mb download and 0.37 upload. This was at 10am. And when I use your speed test it showed 2.67 and 0.36. Surely this is a deceiving trade description? It's like me saying I can run 100 metres in just over 10 seconds, when in reality I couldn't do it that quickly in my car!

tony kerr08 September 2010

If they are offering "up to 6mbps" I am very willing to pay them "up to £55 each month " for it.

sam warner08 September 2010

i am with plusnet and i pay £20 a month for 20mb i did your test and found out all i am getting is 0.15 uploads 0.07 downloads.

Sam08 September 2010

For some reason the speed test checker link is broken, i have tried using firefox, google chrome and IE 8 and none work.

SteveW08 September 2010

My isp package entitles me to "fastest available" but, living in the countryside, I don't expect much. Nevertheless, my less than 2mps download result was disappointing. However, I'm much more disappointed with BT for not upgrading the local exchange to allow for faster speed. At the end of the day, the speed you get is dependent on local BT equipment, is it not. Could you not mount a campaign to get BT to switch it's priorities and update their equipment (even in the countryside!) to allow us all to have decent upload/download speeds.

Rob08 September 2010

Tested at different times & was getting an average of 2-3 mbps. So not only was i lied to by my isp,( the sales man who got me to sign up with em said it was unlimited download but it was actually 10gb. The attitude is you signed you pay, btw he conveniently doesnt work for bt anymore). but i'm getting much less speed than i was told i'd get. Thanx & i wont be staying when my times up...

Paul James08 September 2010

Hi there. I have 20meg with 'Virgin media' I did your test for a wk at various times of the day/evening and with Broadband speed checker,Speednet (2 different locations). The Gadget show speed checker I love, results are (based on average for 1 wk); Upload 0.7mbps Download 18.19mbps (hooo-rar) Broadband speed checker; upload 0.64mbps Download 7.48mbps Speednet Coventry; Upload 0.7mbps Download 9.18mbps Speednet Russia; Upload 0.62mbps Download 6.17mbps As you can see there is quite a difference. So the average for all totals is Upload 0.656mbps Download 10.225mbps. Which one is right?????? Personally I'm going with the Gadget show then I can justify the amount I pay. Hope this is of some help.

Rewsdad08 September 2010

in the test download speed was 9.56 compared to a 10mb advertised speed, that's closer than I expected. Upload speed was 0.75mb

David Bevan08 September 2010

OMG! ran the broadband speed test twice and on both occassions the speed didnt even reach 1 mbps. Cant believe it. Going to get onto my isp now!!!!

grant hobbs08 September 2010

i have rang my service provider several times about my broadband they say its limited by the distance i am away from the exchange how ever i wander why they dont upgrade when they recieve so many complaints if they know that there is a distance problem.

grant hobbs08 September 2010

i spoke to talk talk to why i am only getting 3mb and paying for upto 8mb they said the only way i can get faster is if i move my house nearer the exchange. So i said why dont they upgrade the line they said its down to bt as all providers are using bt lines if they dont upgrade to make it faster then they can only provide what bt let us.

Robert08 September 2010

Hello I have just done the download speed test and found out that I am getting 2.55meg download speed not the specified "up to" 20 meg from Sky

Andy R08 September 2010

I was extremely shocked with my connection. I'm with Virgin and it is supposedly up to 20mb/s that I am on and we are paying for. This test said we were 2mb/s not even the average for 10mb broadband!!! Need to complain now like.

Scott Kirkham08 September 2010

We signed up to BT broadband around a year ago on their 'up to 10MB' speed and we took advantage of their speed booster also. For the first 6 months, we found out via speedtest.net that our actual speed was aroung 12-14MB, well above what we signed up for. However, 6 months in and our speed has dropped to between 4 and 7MB and we still have the so called booster. Talk Talk and Sky Broadband both told us that the line we have will only be capable of up to 4MB, not only was this inaccurate to begin with, (as BT have proven otherwise) but if speeds do drop after a few months, this would not be the quality we would expect to recieve.

Mark Darley08 September 2010

I got just under 12mbps and supposed to have a 20mb connection through Virgin Media. This was via a wireless connection mid-week at midday.

Daniel Smith08 September 2010

Im on bt with the new hub and im still only getting 0.97 mbs download and 0.37 upload speeds. ISPs are awful at distributing their internet speeds!!!

tom08 September 2010

did a test last nite at 7pm it wos 3.4 mbs and 2 day 12 oclck dinner time 9.18 mbs massive diffrence payin 4 10 mbs nt 2 disapointed but could b better i do a lot ov online gamein so need the speed realy esspecily at nite

Stuart Sharpe08 September 2010

Hi there, I found my service provider to be very slow indeed (talk talk formerly tiscali) what I did was to change the DNS server I was using to that of an open source server. After doing a couple of searches over the net for free open source servers I found one I was happy with, I changed my settings and entered the new address, to my complete surprise I found the speed had increased by up to three times. I have been using theses settings for almost six months now and have had no problems what so ever. I think it was possibly one of the best tweaks to my system I have ever done, I consider myself a novice at these sort of things but all of the info can be googled or youtubed for video footage of how it is done. Hope this helps some of you, as I truly think this is an underrated tweak that not a lot of people know about. Good luck Stu Sharpe

Mark Clayton08 September 2010

I am with Virgin cable 20meg service. My speed test varied between 13 and 19.1meg. The upload was a constant 0.7meg so pretty good for the download but the upload is rubbish

Stuart Parker08 September 2010

Hi Doctor Gadget, I always use numion as a speed checker, they say I get 19meg and your speed check says 10meg, that is a huge difference, Im happy with 19meg as I pay for 20meg speed (virgin of course) is your new checker more accurate? I too like other coments I have read, found wireless slower, should I upgrade to better wireless device as mine is several years old now 2.4Ghz 54mps?

james08 September 2010

talktalk tell me i can get UPTO 24mb, thats the service i pay for, BT tell me that my line will only take a maximum of 6md (i wish) . ive done loads of test at different times of the day, at best i get just over 3mb todays test (08/09) was 1.95mb/0.62mb . thats rubbish. guess i will have to knock on every door from here to the exchange and ask if they mind staying off the net whilst i im on, then maybe i will get stuff done at a faster speed!!!

Martin08 September 2010

Why is there not an "About Right" voting button as when you are on a good ISP and getting the correct speed 24/7. I am on an 8mb/s package and sync at 8128 on a 7150k profile and get between 6.5mb/s - 7mb/s all day long. I regularly use various tests from i.e. speedtest.net, thinkbroadband & dslzoneuk.net.

ricky hayes08 September 2010

i have virgin i pay for 10meg n get 9.5 most people i know on virgin get what they pay for if u pay for 10 20 or 50meg if on 50meg u get like 47to49 20 18to20 10 9 so if u ask me most go for virgin u get what u pay for

Ricky Fisher08 September 2010

hi there gadget show guys. i am supposed to get 8mb and your speed tester is saying i am getting 0.95! its appauling! i definately think you should persuade isps to get rid of "up to" p.s) i loved the supersonic football show! especially the 2nd rocket it spun out of control!

robert08 September 2010

after reading the service that some other people get im extremly happy with mine, virgin up to 10mg averaging 8-9 mg with upload of 0.47 average, the odd time during peak it drops to about 6mg but far better than my friends get on sky, west of scotland.

Paul " norfolk"08 September 2010

orange.co.uk, i have broadband max upto 20mb. i get 5-6 MB downlad and a 275kb upload. i pay £25 a month taken on the 23rd of each month. orange then takes this payment 10 days later. this had put me overdrawn on my bank account and not for my own fault. this problem has been ongoing since 2005, customer care rants about direct debit garantee and a 10 day law.

Col216608 September 2010

Hi, I use BT Total Broadband thay say I should get up to 20mbps but I only get 4.14 if i'm lucky, thats not good. Col

Richard08 September 2010

My down load was 1.47 and I am supposed to be getting 20. Why are these companies being allowed to get away with this. They should be fined and we should be compensated.

Nick08 September 2010

Hi Personally I thought the 9.5mb/sec I got from Virgins 10mb line was about right.But your voting box only allows me to say faster or slower than expected. I would like to say As Expected Thanks Nick

Martin08 September 2010

Maybe you should do a report on this about what is happening in Australia at the moment to it's broadband network (NBN) 100mb/s - 1gb/s & mobile networks (NextG) 21 - 42mb/s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Broadband_Network http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NextG

Hunter08 September 2010

I ran all three tests. Several times. Yours said 0.48/0.52Mbps download/upload whilst, give or take 0.01 Mbps, Ping said 3576/524 Kbps and Speedtest said 3.57/0.54 Mb/s. How do I know what to believe?

Tricia K 08 September 2010

Hi, I am using BT Option 2. They are advertising up to 20mbps, was told that in my area SE London I would only get 5mbps. Your Speed Test indicated that i was on average getting 3mbps through out the day. I am happy with BT for now, i was previously using Tmobile mobile broadband and only getting 0.2 mbps (if i was lucky ! )

n harris08 September 2010

time14.27, download 2.77 mbps upload 0.37, we pay for so much and get so little. if the isp`s and telephone companies years ago invested in the infrastructure we could be as good as South Korea but i also believe these companies would charge even more !

Dave Morris08 September 2010

We're with Virgin Media.Download was 18.9 and Upload was 0.7 so as we're on 20 meg service am very pleased with results. Fibre City are also laying fibre optic cable around Bournemouth and are promising up to 100 meg.Will wait and see what they're going to charge for it.

Old Timer 08 September 2010

I'm with Talktalk on a "up to 24 meg" bundle but I only get around 4.5 meg. This is a lot better than it used to be but we are still being conned. If service providers are allowed to continue to get away with using "up to ..." they should have to state what percentage of their customers get the maximum speed they claim to provide and provide hard evidence to support their figures.

Brian Flavell08 September 2010

In north Birmingham at the start of year they started putting the new fibre optic cable in .BT talktalk the engineers on site no will say when it will be ready. till then i wont be doing any upgades .can you show any light on when things will happen

Matthew08 September 2010

i just tested my broadband and i only got 2.41 download and 0.5 upload im wit sky and i should be getting really fast broadband 10-15 mb

peter08 September 2010

download speed was slightly down on what i was told it would be , but upload speed was slow

Rameses B08 September 2010

Virgin just installed 50Mb broadband in our new student house. I tested the speed on mybroadbandspeed.co.uk and it came to 3Mb even with an ethernet plugged in. I must add it fluctuates sometimes from 1Mb - 23Mb. I don't know why it must have something to do with connection issues but even so I expect at least 48Mb. The advertising is definitely misleading and customers do get disappointed when they realise they don't get what they expect and will impact on the reputation of the providers. I also think the UK should increase speeds to 100Mb as they do in Japan!

Mark Pedley08 September 2010

Iv been with BT for years and have never really had a problem, yup im sick of being told by my provider that this is the best connection I can have and would prefer an honest approach to telling me exactly what it is I should be getting. Im with BT and Im paying for the Broadband Option 3 which has always stated that I should get up to 20mb download speeds, after checking with your test and a few others besides Im finding my average is 5.74 :( Im hoping that the new BT Infinity will improve things :D

ManAnnoyedWithSlowComputer08 September 2010

My broadband test was slower than expected and this test has really helped. Thank you Jon.

Sparkly08 September 2010

JOHN, PLEASE ENLIGHTEN ME, SOMETHING IS ODD WITH THIS TEST ----- I have just finished a multi-test using five different broadband speed testers, each of which many times and within minutes of each other... the results were puzzling ... ... The GADGET SHOW TESTER showed: Download 2.88 Mbps / Upload 0.51 Mbps ... SPEEDTEST.NET: Download 4.65 Mb/s / Upload 0.52 Mb/s ... BROADBANDSPEEDCHECKER.CO.UK: Download 4840 Kbps / Upload 523 Kbps ... MYBROADBANDSPEED.CO.UK: Download 4712 Kbps / Upload 523 Kbps ... BROADBAND.TALKTALK.CO.UK (speed test page): Download 4848 Kbps / Upload 521 Kbps .......... As you can see, the Gadget Show speed test is out of sink with the others by almost 2 Mbps (Download)... Dearest John, please check this out! For the record, I am with TalkTalk.

Lloyd08 September 2010

I have Virgin Broadband (Cable) and have always been please with the speeds. I ran the test a few times now and I always get about 9.5 Download and 0.4 Upload for the 10Mbps service I subscribe to. Not bad me thinks. I wonder who is the worse for the Upto and actual results, cough-Sky-cough??

Adam Chilvers08 September 2010

i got 6.86meg and upload of 0.62 im paying 4 10meg so its not that bad as it is only 4pm.

Andy Duncan08 September 2010

I've used Speedtest.net several times to check my broadband speed. Just prior to taking your test I checked my speed via the website again. The difference between the results were vast. On Speedtest.net I was shown as less than 6MB, your test showed my speed just under 19MB! I pay for 20MB broadband through Virgin Media, if the results are as shown on your website then all I can say is that I am happy with the results, but don't understand why there would be such a massive difference in the results?!

LUCKY GILL08 September 2010

I,VE JUSTED CHECKED MY BROADBAND SPEED AND IT WAS 0.41MBPS DOWNLOAD AND IT'S 0.39MBPS UPLOAD I AM WITH BT IS THIS GOOD OR BAD FOR MY LAPTOP

Chris08 September 2010

Been running the broadband speed tester since Oct 2008 everytime I logon it runs a test and looking at the report I have have an average of 2.43 download and 0.3 upload on a 10meg connection!

Sean08 September 2010

Did the test with your clock and the speedtest.net clock which i use on a regular basis. I pay for a 10Mbps connection with Virgin and both tests gave acceptable results both around 9Mbps, I normally achieve 9-10Mbps with speedtest.net but it took a lot of time to eventually get a "fair" speed from my ISP. I paid for a so called "upto 20Mbps" connection for over 2 years with Virgin but never got anywhere near to the 10Mbps that I now now get, so its definately worth checking your speed on a regular basis to make sure that you are not paying for something you are not getting. I downgraded my speed to 10Mbps which may seem like a step backwards but at least i get what I pay for now.

andyt08 September 2010

Well 5.27 at 4.30 still not what i pay for but living in a village is always going to be sloooooow. Apart for ripping up all the cables and replacing with fibre from exchange to home theres no hope.

Ewart08 September 2010

Help, when I try to do the test all I get is a blank screen! I previously had BT as my broadband provider and never really got more than 0.7mb. I asked why the speed was so poor and was told that it was because my cables are housed in aluminimu casings which degenerate the signal! I now get about 3.2mb with Utility Warehouse (up to 24mb promised) and see the difference. It is interesting to see that BT estimate I will get 3-3.5 in my postcode area.

Jared08 September 2010

i am with sky and i pay for 10meg internet and i got 7.5 meg download and 0.23 upload

Paul08 September 2010

I've just done the speed test & to be quite honest i'm disgusted that i'm paying for 10mb & to my disgust i'm only getting 3.36 download & a paultry 0.5 upload speed . I'm with sky & shall be making a phone call quite soon !!! How the hell do they get away with it .

Ewart08 September 2010

Help, I have tried to do the test but only get a blank screen!! I used BT Business for my broadband and got on average 0.75MB download speed. I queried this with BT and was told that I should get 3-3.5 MB in my postcode area but that the telephone lines are in aluminimu casing and this degenerates the signal!!. I now use Utility Warehouse and get an average of 3.2MB (up to 24MB promised), which is a great deal better.

Andy 08 September 2010

We have had Virgin Media's 20MB fiber since it was launched and we have always had an average of 20MB as they said!! We are very impressed and would recommenced to others. No complaints

Nicola08 September 2010

I know our internet connection is slow, we are signed up to talk talk 'up to 24mb' but test shows 0.55 download and 0.34 upload, feel as though we are being ripped off !!! Certainly not receiving the service which we are paying for. Tested this several times during the day & not even peak times !!!!!!!!

Steve Brushett08 September 2010

I am using Talktalk broadband ,upto 24mb, and all i get is an average of 7.5mb download and 5.2mb upload, thats bad.

James Antill08 September 2010

I changed over to Sky broadband because their "Up to 20Mb download speeds" seemed like a great deal compared to the price I was paying Virgin media for an "up to 8Mb line" (which actually worked out about 4Mb). I knew I wouldn't get 20Mb but I thought I would get the same as Virgin at least given the theoretical extra 16Mb seemingly on offer. Sadly I have never got any faster than about 1.7Mb on Sky at anytime of day so they were effectivly advertising an extra 18.3Mb of speed that they were incapable of providing. Perhaps if I lived in the telephone exchange I might get whats on offer but it is misleading to the extent of the disparity between whats advertised and whats available regardless of the small print. You wouldn't get away with it in any other industry imo and it needs to be changed to be more fairer and more representative of the product on offer.

Jason Rew08 September 2010

Jason 8th Sept Bristol (Stoke Gifford/Bradley Stoke) has some of the worst Broadband speeds. The BT telephone exchange at Filton covers the entire area. Typical download 0.32 Mbps Upload 0.46 Mbps not much use for anything. Speeds getting worse as time goes on with no sign of any upgrades to the exchange. What can we do?

Tim Bayley08 September 2010

Hi Have done speed tests. Getting 9.8meg, pay for 10 meg with Virgin Media. One thing seems to be coming out in all of the posts. You need to get your broadband through fibre-optic cable to achieve high speeds. Always been very pleased with both the service and support from Virgin Media

Greg08 September 2010

Have been with Talk Talk for about 3 years and do not have one complaint. It seems that every new package released is automatically given to me so although I pay about £22 a month, I get free national calls (all day) and my broadband consitantly comes in between 14 & 17mbs with unlimited downloads. Might be in the minority but well done Talk Talk!

mike orange08 September 2010

i test mine three times ( i am meant to get up to 8mb) first time was surprised went up 6mbwhich isnt bad,but the next 2 times where what i expect both times below 3mb, a third of what i am supposed to get. only time get close to 8mb is at 4 oclock in morning.

Nick08 September 2010

About what I expected, averaged 18.69mbitsec on a 20 meg connection at half 5 in the afternoon. Virgin Media's cable broadband rocks, I consistently get full or close to full speed no matter what the time.

Simon Stockbridge08 September 2010

my advertised bb speed is upto 50mb, just done the test, and im getting a pathetic 11mb download speed, this is an absolute disgrace!!

Rob08 September 2010

Virgin Media 10Mb cable service (I am Edinburgh based). I get 9.6 download and 4.2 upload. I get pretty good speed (usually) although given the cost - £25 pm it should be.

Ian Foy08 September 2010

Hi there, well I have broadband with sky and they upgraded me recently to Sky Broadband Everyday, as they said my usage limit needed this and hence i was charged more for it. So i used the test software you suggested, and Sky Broadband Everyday states upto 20MB, your test results showed 7.7mbps, just over one third what it should be, and this was tested late afternoon, so not on peak period. I am shocked that i am paying for this service when infact it is not even close to what they state.

Paul Seacombe08 September 2010

Usual virgin stuff I am on a 50mb line tried the checker on wifi then hard wired, usual to have a higher speed hard wired as the wifi prioritises hard wire. I am happy with the speed & if i need it faster i hard wire things like the ps3 in to the router to cut down on lag. Cheers

SparkieLong08 September 2010

We all make mistakes, mine was going with Orange. Now getting 1.7Mb download and 0.50MB Upload and paying for 20Mb Tech support is appalling. 7 more months of hell before I can get out of my contract. If I am paying for something and not getting it why can I not cancel my contract??

Mark08 September 2010

My connection speed is awful (download 0.3 - upload 0.4). I'm told it's due to the distance I am from the exchange? You'd think in this day & age it shouldn't be a problem. Anyway I currently use Sky cos it's free, but am just about to change to Virgin's fibre optic service,costs a fortune but should be much quicker upto 10mb (in theory). Will test again once it's working.

chris davies08 September 2010

Sky is the worst for false advertising because i was paying £10 a month for upto 20mb but cud oly get 3.7mb at most. virgin seems to do well which i have now.

crazy horse08 September 2010

I got 0.46 download, 0.16 upload. Six months ago, my ISP was trying to get me to 'upgrade' to 8MB from my current 2MB, which was a pretty cynical ploy to shift me off my super-valuable 'no-limits' contract, with no chance of any gain to me. Apparently we're at the end of the phone line from the exchange, but it's embarrasing that my Android phone is faster when tethered. chuk

eviledna108 September 2010

i have to say that yes i am getting lower than what i was told i could get but i don't think they are the only ones that are deceiving us i have always done the speed test with this web site and speednet.com. this site is so much slower that all the other sites i try as a show i would like to think they are impartial but as many other people have said this does not seem to be that case. this will not help ISP providers to change there ways if these results can not be trusted. i love your show but what else have you lied to us about

kev smith08 September 2010

I'm with AOL they promise 8mb but I'm only getting 2.5mb we should only pay for what we get, if i order a 8oz steak i dont expect to get 2oz ?

James Grant08 September 2010

There is something I've noted amongst these comments, and that is the difference between cable modems and ADSL modems. As I've posted earlier ADSL modems, using BT cabling (normal house phones etc), are relying on possibly very old cabling, and of low quality (it was designed for voice only). Cable modems usually have high quality co-axial cabling or fibre optic which guarantees more bandwidth and theoretically a higher percentage of actual speed compared to the claimed speed.

Chris Elding08 September 2010

I note that a lot of you are getting results far slower than expected, I did too however I have been using http://ww.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/ for some time now and regularly get 5.6Mbs. To the guy's at the Gadget show it's probably the best show on TV but you may want to check that the speed check wigit is working correctly or is it giving false readings for outlying areas. Many Thanks CJ

Mike Handbury08 September 2010

Expecting to get no more than a max of 8mb it is disappointing that I can only get 2mb download adn 0.35 up. Surfing the net is like watching paint dry. Also it is not possible to take advantage of good TV/phone/broadband packages. Mike

justin08 September 2010

I am currently with sky and i am very happy with their unlimited service for seven pounds fifty pm. however i was shocked to find i am only getting 12meg download spead and not the quoted 'upto 20meg'.

les08 September 2010

For some time now I have been having problems with my broadband, only receiving less than 0.5mb. I phoned BT, who sent an engineer out 2 days after my call. The engineer tested my line from the wall socket, which was receiving 3.8mb. My broadband speed from the wall socket to my router was 0.5mb. The other 3.3mb was, in his words, being highjacked by my Sky system, which he said had been connected incorrectly. He then unplugged my Sky system from the wall and re-tested my router speed. He then told me it was 3.8mb. After the engineer left, I did a broadband test and to my dismay, the result was that my broadband speed is 0.9mb. Needless to say, I am absolutely racked off about this and will be phoning BT again and will also be phoning Sky.

mainy08 September 2010

iam with virgin 10mb and get about 8mb at peak times but only four when checked with the speed check on this site. my advice is to check using other speed tester.

Pete08 September 2010

Hi all Well i did the test and got 4.56 download spead and 0.03 upload speeds witch is rediculus as i suppose to get up to 8mbs, the download spead i expected but the upload spead is not acceptable

tony parry08 September 2010

For months now I have been complaining to Sky Broadband that my drop in speed from 4.5Mb to 3.3Mb is not acceptable not when I pay them for their max speed 20Mb and unlimited downloads service. They have tested the line and confirmed that there are unexplained errors on the line. I managed to get them to replace the 3yr old Netgear router unfortuantely this has made little difference. So 'm paying for 20Mb but only getting 3.3Mb. I have told them I will switch to Virgin Media as even if I only manage to get 50% of the 20Mb at 10Mb that is more than double what I'm currently getting.

Tony The Cockroach Goodman08 September 2010

A tip for Virgin internet users. If you have 10mb or higher and are not getting results any where near give Virgin tech a ring and ask if your cable modem is capable of running the speeds you are subscribing for. I had 20mb at one point and after months of ringing Virgin and complaining about rubish connection speeds I discovered the problem. I was issued a modem that was not capable of reaching 20mb. In fact it was unable to go higher than 4 or 5mb. So the kind tech head that actually knew what they were talking about sent me a replacement cable modem which cured the slow download speeds. My old modem was one of those ugly white/cream jobbies where as my latest modem is small & black, just how I like my women! Cheers, Tone

Bill Tanner08 September 2010

My download speed was about what I expected - just over 6MB, but I was surprised how low my upload speed was - 0.36MB. I have BT Broadband Option 1 (8MB) with free evening and weekend calls, and I negotiated a special 12 month deal including line rental when my initial 12 month contract expired last month. Our local exchange (Ammanford) was supposed to have been upgraded to 20MB in Autumn last year, but it never transpired, and most probably never will! I wish BT was more Mac friendly, and, if I could have afforded their rates, I would have changed over to MacAce, an ISP which specialises in Mac users. My first BT router was faulty, and since then I have had 2 replacements, but, touch wood!, I have had no problems since last Boxing Day. I don't use wireless at all, but run an ethernet cable from the router to my Mac Pro. However, the router's wireless function keeps coming on of its own accord, and I used to keep deactivating it in "Advanced Settings", but eventually I gave up, because it would activate itself again within a few days. The last 2 people I spoke to at BT (about my new contract) were very helpful, but I dread being connected to their call centre in India, because I am severely deaf, and have problems understanding what they are saying with my hearing aids. Their English is very good, but their accents are a big problem for me.

John Hook08 September 2010

I am with Virgin Media on an up to 10mb package, just run a check and it registered 9.22mb down load and .46mb upload.

John Hook08 September 2010

I am with Virgin Media on an up to 10mb package, just run a check and it registered 9.22mb down load and .46mb upload.

Matthew Lister08 September 2010

Oh my god, how bad is my broadband!! I had a download of 5.5msg & a upload of 0.5meg!!! I pay for 20meg & thats what I expect. Can this be legal!! I am with Sky have HD & taken all their packages...... I must be MAD

Stephen Watts08 September 2010

I have an upto 8meg plusnet account. I have just done the test on your site and have an upload and download speed of 0.02meg its rediculous. I know its peak time but 7.45pm but 0.02 and pages just take an age to load and I can forget about streaming anything. I'll be complaining tomorrow. There is no way it can be right that they are allowed to use upto in there ads, it like the make up ads where 80% of 50 people who work for the ad agency think its great the asa allows companies to treat consumers as idiots to be parted with their cash.

Ross08 September 2010

Im not sure if its because my laptop is 2 or 3 years old but my speed measured at an awful 0.28mb with Sky! (Thats WITH Jason's tinfoil trick!) Sky offer UP TO 20mb

Ray Paice08 September 2010

I had appalling broadband speed and at one time as low as 0.3 these days I am around 2 if not too many people are on line. I was getting no where with AOL complaints until I used John's CEO email address website and wrote to Charles Dunstone of Car Phone Warehouse who run AOL in the UK. The man was excellent responding personally (well appearing to respond personally) and he got a senior guy to check through my issues. BT checked the man hole in the road then sent an engineer to my house to check my phone sockets, they were 25 years old. They replaced them FOC with one with a built in filter too. Tested I can easily get 7mbs from my exchange but here is the problem. It needs upgrading. BT were going to do it last year but kept delaying . Decemeber they do not do that type of work (?) and to thhis day no change. I used John's CEO email and wrote to Ian Livingstone of BT and without checking sent me a blunt reply telling to sort it with AOL as I was not a customer. Excuse me my phone line is.... Eventually with help from Charles and his staff BT mover me to another set in the exchange. Less busy it was 5mbs but this quickly deteriorated to 2 or most often less. I guess others complained and got moved. AOL have been brilliant giving me two three month free periods and each time lowring my monthly premium. But I still am contracted for 8mbs and it is BT's exchange preventing me from receiving it. My tip write to ian.livingston@bt.com and moan like I did maybe they will then speed up the exchange upgrade programme as it is not all down to the Provder but often BTs system Regards Ray

Mark08 September 2010

Strange that using Apple Safari (on a Mac) I got results of 0.2Mbs, yet on the same Mac, using Firefox the results were 6.2Mbs at 8pm, on an 8Mbs connection, so in line with what I'd expect. Where is the voting button for 'Pretty much what I expected'? Which is the result I (eventually) got.

Chris Knowles08 September 2010

I am with Talk Talk in the Stoke on Trent area. My suggested broadband speed was quoted at a lowly 2.3Mb. The best I have measured is a pathetic 0.6Mb. Talk Talk even had the cheek to tell me I was getting 2.3Mb this evening whilst trying to sell a further 24 month contract! I think a best of 25% of "upto" 2.3Mb is almost worth having a dial up!

David Moore08 September 2010

I am paying for up to 8meg with Tiscali and after doing your test I am shocked to find I am getting less than 1meg, in fact less than half a meg!

Richard Bridgman08 September 2010

i have sky unlimited broadband I'm gutted i only get 7.7 ish mbps i feel a right Paul Daniels

Richard 08 September 2010

I recently signed up with Orange and regretted it from day one of going live. Having previously been with o2 I thought the overall package offering was good. Line rental, home phone free calls and broadband for £21 per month and a minimum 1.5mb rate guarantee. However it came to light they could not deliver 1.5 but a mean 0.5mb most of the time and 1.1 the rest. Having worked woth the overseas technical team for 2 days they told me that was the best rate I would get even though I explained o2 gave me consistant 1.5-2mb. I cancelled the contract the next day and went back to o2 Home package deal which was just as cheap. Why one operator can produce better results than another is beyond me but at least with o2 its a UK call centre which is excellent to deal with. Oh yes Orange now plan to chase me for £130 disconnection fee, how hilarous is that based on their incapable service. We'll bring it on

Ellen08 September 2010

I'm with Virgin Media and I must admit that I am pretty happy with the service. You get free virus protection and their customer support was excellent when I had a problem. I'm paying for 10mbps and on a wireless network I got 9.43 download and 0.44 upload.

Martin L08 September 2010

I'm on Post Office broadband, using BT infrastructure, and am consistently getting 3 to 4Mb on an 'up to 8Mb' package. The lower figures relate to peak use times, although quite often the whole connection fails completely. We live on the other side of town from GCHQ, but that doesn't mean that we're in any communications fast lane - just like when Ch5 started we were in a poor signal area - so, no surprises. Perhaps the motor industry should start advertising cars as 'up to 155mph' or 'down to 90 g/km CO2); mind you, salaries have been 'up to £xx' or 'competitive' for ages.

Ian08 September 2010

I'm on Virgin Media 10 mb package, and I am more than happy. I do think its your site that is slow, on http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/# I get around 8mb/s, but on your speed checker I only get around 4mb/s.

Simon Hutchings08 September 2010

I've just used speedtest.com and its reported that I have a speed greater than 17mbps. Interesting since I'm on ADSL upt 8mbps!

bill brown08 September 2010

im with pipex and it always says speed is 6.2 just tested at 20.50 and its 3

Alan 08 September 2010

I tested my speed on the Gadget show tester and got 2.35. i then tested on other free speed checkers available free online and they were all around the 6 mark, is your test reliable?

Clive Brown08 September 2010

I am on Virginmedia and have been tring a variety of speed checkers and all have reflected near identical figures at the various time of day I have tested the speed. Each time the results have been between 8.4 and 10.3 for a 10MB system except one evening I was getting 0.5mb but that appeared to have been a hiccup for about half an hour. Overall no complaints here I have used similar tests for the last 3 years and each time the results have been in the region of 9MB

Dave Lowe08 September 2010

I'd echo other comments about lack of a 'what I expected' option in your results. Seems you will intruduce a serious bias in results when people like me get the result they expect and therefore can't vote! I get what I pay for from Virgin most of the time with the odd glitch. I only really have trouble when crossing international borders at 'peak' times - which seem quite variable (but then our 'slack' may be someone elses 'peak' and our 'off-peak' may be someone elses mainenance time). Get that button up.

Rob08 September 2010

I'm with Karoo, the only choice for ADSL internet in Hull. I'm on a 24Meg package and only get a 1.6 Meg in the speed test. Terrible.!!

marston green08 September 2010

Tested my wifi connection three times within 10 minutes at 9pm. Initially download of 1.1mbps and upload 0.37 then two the same of download 5.4 & upload 0.36. Inconsistent which ties in with problems when browsing also - so much for reliable broadband from BT...

RCDG08 September 2010

Virgin does the job. I pay for 10Mps and get 9.29Mps via a Wii router, no complaints from me.

Stu08 September 2010

I was quite impressed and surprised with the download speed with this test. I am on Virgin 10Mb and top speed was 9.4Mb, thats through Wifi as well. However the upload was shocking as as I suspected. I uploaded some videos over the last 2 days and seemed to take forever. After taking this test now I know why. Only 0.47Mb upload speed. To be honest I am not sure what I should get upload wise, I mean is that good or bad..I suspect for 10Mb thats bad....anyone got any thoughts on that?

Chris Nicholls08 September 2010

I am a network engineer for a medium sized ISP and would like to share my opinion on this subject. I agree that the term "up to" seems misleading but as with 99% of marketing it attempts to present a product/service in the best light. But saying that ISPs are only quoting the theoretic maximum for a particular service. Take for example a car manufacturer stating car X does Y miles to the gallon- actual usage will rarely equate to the marketing/lab figures. It feels to me being in the industry and being versed in the underlining technology that glues a DSL/Cable service together, that the general public would be less disgruntled if they better understood what affects performance. These effects, in reality, can be almost anything along the chain, from bad internal wiring, network equipment, length/quality of phone lines, exchange capacity, user error, misconfiguration- the list is endless. A very common issue is people turning their DSL routers/modems off at night; DSL is a rate adaptive, best-efforts service. Your router and the equipment in the exchange will make minor adjustments to the signal to give you the best performance for that line. Turning your router on/off often will be simulating line issues and as such your router and the teleco equipment will automatically lower speeds to compensate for what it thinks is a bad line. The same can be said for cable networks. Although the underlining technology is different there are several factors that can effect customer experience. I've heard of setups where all customers are on a shared segment, meaning that all customers in an area will contend with each other. In experience of networking/computers/IT and the general public is that there are two groups of consumers. There are the people that take the time to understand a technology, and those that just want it to work and don't how. Unfortunately the latter leave themselves open to misconceptions, which it would appear can turn into witch hunts. Most of the comments that I have read on this page so far, no offense to the posters, reflect a lack of understanding which has been turned into a state of feeling ripped off, and for that I am disappointed. Yes poor connectivity is frustrating, but unfortunately the problem lies in the ground, not in ISP marketing.

Mungi08 September 2010

Not sure how accurate your tester is. I'm with sky and 3 different speed testers all gave me 6.7mbs at 21:15hrs. Yours gave me 2.7mbs!

Gary Millar08 September 2010

BT Broadband - up to 8meg (yeah right) Tested at 9.30pm 1.79mbps download - pants or what! Was almost 6mbps at 6.30pm last night

Chris08 September 2010

I wasn't expecting the 8meg service I am paying from Talktalk but 0.49meg is a joke. The issue is were the fault lies with Talktalk servers or the line. If the advertised service speed is only possible in "ideal circumstances" i.e. your house is next door to the exchange then it should be reduced to a more accurate "average" rating. If all ISP had to get 10,000 average readings from a predefined postcode list then this would be a lot fairer. What reason could they offer to object if it was imposed on them as they could genuinely tell their customers what they are likely to receive for their hard earned cash.

greycomper08 September 2010

Why can you get a mobile phone number transferred in a couple of days but if you move house a broadband connection takes aroudna fortnight to change?

Mark Anderson08 September 2010

I'm with Virgin cable, 20MB package. On 3 other speedtest sites I get 19.3 to 19.8, on the gadget show speedtest I get 4.7MB. Firstly all speed test websites should really be taken with a pinch of salt as they don't generally truly reflect your actual throughput speed anyway. Secondly, while I do believe its right to raise awareness about packages and speed, as your speedtest is grossly inaccurate and with there being no basic steps that all broadband users should be aware of, such as if using an ADSL connection (though BT lines) you should really be plugged into the main socket and not using any extension cables - this entire debate is kind of null and void. Why not post some basic checks, give background information on the differences between cable, ADSL, ADSL 2+ and also discuss Ofcom's code of practice that ISP's actually do have to adhere to regarding speeds? You also make no mention of using wireless - in most built up areas, the majority of people use wireless and there are many things that can affect wireless connections, drop outs, seemingly slow speeds etc. Chris Nicholls (a couple of posts above here) pretty much sums it up, there is often a lack of understanding about the actual cause of perceived slow speeds.The downside to this campaign is that unfortunately people will watch the program, run the speedtest, perhaps get themselves unecessarily frustrated then contact their ISP and may be unwilling to accept that maybe their ISP is actually providing a decent service. Still curious to know however why my own results are so wildly different on your test. I know for a fact that I'm getting much more than 4.7MB - but if I didnt have some backgournd knowledge, I too would be in touch with my ISP.

nickyg2208 September 2010

i am not shocked at all i have complained several times not only that my isp has given my details to other companies with out my concent they passed my details to digiprotect i am switching provider for my phone homephone and internet

Jim McKay08 September 2010

I'm getting a download speed of 0.47 and an upload speed of 0.36 from BT. Shouldn't they be improving the service bottom-up so as to try to provide the same service to everyone? After all I'm paying the same as people who are getting very much faster speeds than me.

James Smethurst08 September 2010

Hi Jon, We're been struggling as a family to get a decent broadband speed. With there being some many complaints about people not getting what they pay for, we no longer know who to trust. Could you shed some light on the situation for us. thanks James

Andy H08 September 2010

Hi - thanks for the quick test - I have Virgin Media 10meg download and your test showed it to be 9.55 via the wireless router - so well done Virgin Media!

Chris Mason08 September 2010

right not only do i get told that i can get "up to" 8mb but i went onto bt's website and it has a thing where it tells you what speed you could be getting and it said 4.5 mb?????? WHAT!? i regulary test my net speed using various speed checkers at different times and THE QUICKEST SPEED i have ever got is 2.5mb. i know that im not gonna get 8mb cause its "up to" but to get told on the website that i should be getting over 4 and never seen 4mb speed in my life!

Paul G08 September 2010

Just done the speed test - have updated to BT Infinity "Up to 40 Mb" - even when its quieter at night I only get 23 Mb ( connected to the hub ) and 18 Mb when on Wifi ( d'oh )

Susie08 September 2010

Holey moley. Not even managing 1 meg! With BT and shoud be up to 8 in our area. Feels like im prematurely aging using my pc and laptop!

Max McMullon08 September 2010

I think this campaign is ridiculous as their adverts say 'up to' which in my opinion is not at all misleading. It states that you can get the limit under some circumstances and, fair enough those circumstances are hard to come by but it does not say you will defiantly get the limit. The only people who are mislead by 'up to' have got to be stupid. I mean i do not say that the internet is brilliant but still they are not lying so telling them to get rid of it is wrong and utterly stupid. Where does this end.

Tony08 September 2010

I'm with Virgin who boast of speeds up to 20 mbps but have found after using your test to check the rate for my service at non peak times,which is my main usage time, that I'm registering download speeds of 1.43-1.86 mbps at worst and 8.45-9.5 mbps at best. By any stretch of the imagination this is apalling when you consider the amount I am being charged for a service that is failing to deliver anywhere near the speeds that are being advertised to promote the service as being superior to other internet service providers.

chris addezio08 September 2010

well what can one say, as usual the british public are forced to pay some of the highest prices around for goods and services that it is clear we as a whole are not getting, at what point will the authorities sit up and listen and actually do something about it. If i was to buy a product in a shop or online i am protected under legislation to some degree, wheather it is over goods that are not fit for purpose or price fixing and so on. So why are the isp's allowed to ramp their products with wildley over stated claims on speeds that we pay top prices for when their are providers that will only charge for actualy what we are getting . There must be a case for miss selling these services . i pay for the top package of sky that allows for unlimited download.

Paul T09 September 2010

the five speed test site is repeatedly giving a result of around 50% of that at speedtest.net regardless of the time of day - neither of which seem to match up to the actual, real world, sustained download speed I got at the same time through the Steam game delivery service. Suffice to say I've got my full 20mbps from Virgin at most times of day from remote servers that can supply the same.

MaxS09 September 2010

Got a pretty shocking 0.82Mbps download and 0.72Mbps upload. Shocking considering we're apparently meant to be getting a maximum speed of 8Mbps... Almost identical results on the Speedtest site too. This is at off-peak, just after midnight. Quite poor, especially considering I rely on this internet connection for my Uni work. Thanks, Virgin.

STEPHEN09 September 2010

SUPPOSE TO B 20M FRM SKY AND I PAY FOR IT JUST CHECKED IT 3.05 SO I CALLED THEM TODAY AND HAVE CANCELLED MY SUBSCIPTION AND MOVING TO O2

Richard Anderson09 September 2010

I have been misled, I am not getting what I thought I was getting, I wonder how my broadband provider would feel, if I offered to pay "UP TO" the cost of my service, but instead only paid a portion of it, well they would'nt so why can and do they do it to me and many others?

JOHN C09 September 2010

i got my free up grade and got more then they sead insted of 19.4 i got 27.8meg and upload of 8.47

bob croft09 September 2010

1.18 Mbs download speed on a Orange 8 Mbs package Direct connection to the router. It is 2:43 am so well out of the peak times! I often have drop offs, and last week it was only 0.03 Mbs! Disgraceful.

Neil Simpson09 September 2010

Im with Virginmedia and Im on their so called 15 mbps broadband. I was getting 8-9 mbps which I was happy with as that was what I was getting with BT before, However 4 weeks ago my internet went down for 4 days and despite calling virgin customer support (at a cost to me) they couldnt help me so they said their technical team would take up the case and I would be contacted by them within 5 days. They contacted me 4 days on to say it was a router problem and it was now fixed, however I was only getting 1 mbs broadband speed. I complained and they said I should disconnect my router for 15 mins a day 3 times a day and the speed should increase. My internet has went down a further 3 times since then and my speed has got up to 6 mbs but this is still slower than what I was getting before, yet they still expect me to pay a full months bill despite my broadband being down for a total of 6 days. Keep up the good work and I love the show.

Kev09 September 2010

Most speed issues are related to your exchange rather than what they can supply. My ISP claims 8mb but exchange only allows around 5 [if your lucky!]

Steven White09 September 2010

Done the test and get .5mb, yep thats right a half meg download!!!!! I live just outside a market town in Norfolk - Fakenham. My friend however how lives in Fakenham and about roughly the same distance away from the town centre gets over 6mbs!!! I know its all about the exchange, how far away and all that but why such a massive diference. BT needs to and must sort out these kind of issues, a neighbour two doors away has been having problems for over a month with their broadband and BT still havent managed to sort out the issue - because they dont know what the problem is!!!! The exchange is old and outdated, thats the problem, companies need to spend money on updating instead of lining the pockets of their chief execs!!!!! Rant over - just wish I could get 6mbs!!!!

Kikis09 September 2010

I used to live in an area not served by Virgin so I had BT broadband and used to get about 2MB, I then switched to O2 and somehow that DID improve the speed to about 3.2MB. This surprised me as I was about 2.5 miles from the exchange. I have since moved and got myself connected to Virgin's cable, I live in North Watford. After a poor start and many complaints the speed is now regularly 9.8MB in the evenings but around 7MB in the day which I don't understand unless everyone living around me is working from home. Uploads are 0.47MB. Anyway, it was only after many complaints did something happen although Virgin never actually explained what they did. I'm happy to say I'm getting what I expect and pay for.

Debbie09 September 2010

I am using BT option 3 broadband, so called unlimited downloads and up to 8Mb speed. I've never managed to get 8Mb the best being around 6Mb. There is no options for cable in my area so unable to get Virgin and there are no plans for it to be installed in this area. I live in south west Scotland. The test this morning at 7:50 produced a download speed of 4.66Mb and upload speed of 0.36Mb. There have been times when the download speed is less than the old dial up speeds! When phoning BT you are always put through to an operator who's first language is quite obviously not English, which can cause some problems when trying to solve any issues. The first solution they offer is to reset the hub. We do that BEFORE calling. I think these ISP's should be made to advertise the average speed not the top speed (if anyone actually gets the top speed)

Silverdragon09 September 2010

Hello Gadget Fans!. I am using Virgin, cable connection, from which I usually get between 18 to 21 Mbps..That is genuine, otherwise I would have raised merry hell already... The results I just got at 08:10 were 18Mbps, which on a 20Mbps connection is what I kind of expected, but the UPLOAD speed?... 0.69?... THAT is slow...

trudi hughes09 September 2010

Hi Have tried your test three times, at different times of day Seems to record the following download 1.19 MBPS (YES!!! thats all!) upload 0.37 MBPS I ilve 3 miles from the Dunmow exchange, and 9 miles from Stansted Airport. Truly appalling. Rural communities lose out again - big time. NB : I note DCMS (UK Gov't) has launched the 1st highspeed broadband in a village in hertfordshire. They need to be cncourage to do more of this, more quickly. Or what about satellite? Oh, if only we had viable alternative providers.......... link http://www.culture.gov.uk/news/news_stories/7378.aspx thanks for what you do - love the show.

Patrick Burgess09 September 2010

I am currently signed for "up to" 20 meg broadband. I do speed tests very frequently through various sites, they all come back at about 5 meg, however, I have just done your speed test, and it came back at 2.72 meg. I then did speedtest.net, and got 5.1. Why the huge difference between your test, and speedtest.net?

Gary Millar09 September 2010

I've concerns about your speed test. I got 1.3mbps last night at 9.30pm. Once I'd done the test I used another site and got a reading of 3.9mbps - just two mintues after the Gadget Show test! Something ain't right

Tony09 September 2010

Hi Jon, I have a BT business broadband "upto" 20meg, my download was 13.72 & upload 0.95, I am a bit of a computor novice, so not 100% sure I am correct in what I am saying here, but I believe that to be Slower than it should be?.

Steve09 September 2010

I'm on Virgin cable and have never had any issues. At the start of the year, I decided to upgrade to 50mb and have always received 49 - 51mb at all times. Just fantastic service. I did have 20mb before and even when they reduced there service in the peak periods, you still had a reliable and fast service. When I first moved in to my house, BT could only get 0.5mb into the house! BT have, within the last two months, installed fibre optic to the cabinet in the area and now claim "upto" 40mb. They have started the heavy advertising but are too late and still slower than Virgin. Perhaps they should of researched which areas Virgin are not in and done them instead.

kevin21209 September 2010

was informed i would get 6 mb at present only getting 3.6 mb,,,,,, line problem being with bt the help line is free and are generally very helpful question are all broadband help lines free ? the money we pay they should all be free

Mary Baker09 September 2010

I belong to Sky broadband but was on BT until this year. I live near the centre of Hereford and my computer is almost next to my Wifi box. I was advertised to get UP TO 20meg and I get under 2meg at any time of day.often less than 1.5! I have friends in the local countryside who get limited connectivity or none from time to time. Is this 21st century tech for the people outside London and other big cities?

Leslie09 September 2010

18 meg or a bit over for me. I pay for 20 so that's not too bad. I find the appalling (0.7Mb) upload speed a bit of a pain, but don't upload huge files that often. Virgin regulalry try to persuade me to upgrade to 50 meg but I can't see that I'd notice the difference much as I don't stream video very often. Interesting to see people saying they get pretty much the speed from it it says on the tin though. I did notice that, when using speedtest.net that the speeds are very dependent on the server I used for the check. Most give the 18 or so meg I got from your test but some are as low as 7 or 8 meg.

David Blair09 September 2010

I got wildly different download results for my TalkTalk broadband from different speed-tests. Yours was by far the slowest at just under 3 meg but this varied between 5-8 meg using the alternatives you listed, plus the first 10 speed-testers google offered me from a search. Upload all fairly similar at a little under 1 meg. So, who right?!

cazzaanddil09 September 2010

i pay for up to 8.0mb.... from aol on average £21.00 per month that includes phone calls and £18 for bt landline rental = 39.00 per month and wait for it only get 0.08 yep put that in right 0.08 mb!!!!!! cant download ,cant even watch u tube cayse toooooo slow how rubbish is that

Mr A Burt09 September 2010

thank you for the speed test, i am paying for 8meg broadband, and only running at 3meg on a good day some times not even 2meg. now i was warned by British Telecom that because i live in village and what they call rural. that my internet would be a little slower, but it is actually more slower than i realised until now.

Jon Green09 September 2010

I live in Milton Keynes and have suffered with dial up speeds for years but I am now on a trial for FTTP (fibre to the property) with plusnet. I now get upto 100meg DL & 15meg UL speeds (actual speeds are 92.5meg down and 13.4meg up). Happy days. Now the only restriction to my broadband experience is the speed to which sites upload, and also the lack of affordable readily available HD IPTV. Problem for everyone else is I don't think that FTTP is cost effective so I doubt that BT will roll it out any further than the trial - shame.

Roger Marriott09 September 2010

Hi Jon I am really interested in your Broadband speed campaign, however I am not sure what your recommendation for the replacement of 'up to' speed speed is, or what you want it to be. Typically ISP's specify speed of 'up to' 8 Meg, 20 Meg, 40 Meg and soon 100 Meg - but everyone should be aware that these speeds are the headline speeds of the service offered. For the 8 and 20 Meg services that are delivered over copper specifically, as soon as you leave the Exchange the line is impacted by noise (Ofcom offer a good graph that displays the typical impact of noise on the speed obtained on their website). This noise can be impacted by many things including the use of electrical equipment and electrical cables running alongside the Broadband lines. This might be on premises being passed or on the user's own site. The overall impact is to reduce the speed of the connection such that typically after 5 - 6 Km line distance the service becomes useless (although there are trials underway to offer service at 12Km using a slightly different solution) It is extremely difficult therefore for an ISP to offer an accurate expectation of the speed that will be obtained at a site before the service is in place. BT do offer an 'estimated' speed that could be achieved for customers signing up for their service on their website, but this can only be an estimate as on site wiring has a major impact on the speed achieved. This is shown by the almost 40k users who have fitted the iPlate to their connection and, on average, received a 1.5 Meg increase in speed. I would love to support your campaign, but need to understand what you are offering as an alternative. If you have no alternative suggestion then perhaps it might be more beneficial to show users how they can help themselves get a better speed by checking that they have filters fitted on all devices, ensuring that their cables do not run alongside power cables and perhaps considering the purchase of an iPlate for less than £10 to try to get a better speed (note that this does not help in every case and, although a simple DIY solution, will only for certain types of socked)

mike09 September 2010

Im with karoo and i only get 3.2 not the 10 meg i should be getting

Philippe09 September 2010

I am on an old Virgin package with up to 8Mbps and the test constantly signals that, in my area, I get between 6 and 7Mbps. I suppose this is not bad. However, 8 Mbps is not a lot nowadays Not being in a cabled area, I can get up to 20Mbps (actually 17Mbps according to Virgin) with one of their new packages, but there's a download limit if i take the equivalent package, so is it worth it when there's a heavy gamer in the house? The connection speed will decrease when that limit is exceeded, they say, but by how much? Does anybody know

mike 09 September 2010

I use wi-fi, on my notebook using bt.yahoo service, I get excellent sign from the home hub that I've got but my highest mb test result I got was 2.3mb so not that excellent at all

Amber09 September 2010

I'm with virgin and i took the test at 11.58ish. It said 54Mbps but tested at 6.56Mbps. Not surprising at all

Ben Mann09 September 2010

I feel that this Five Test site is seriously flawed and the Gadget Show need to get their own house in order. I have taken time to test all three download speed sites at the same period with three tests per site. My average on Speed Test 13.5 MB My average on Broadband Speed checker 11.5 MB My average on this Gadget site 7.5 MB This is not a once off. So if you are going to launch a campaign at least start by using reliable measures. This is a good campaign and I support it's goal, however this undermines your evidence.

Chas Large09 September 2010

My Speed test results are: 6.7Mb/s download and 0.67Mb/s upload. OK for me as we have an 8Mb account. Awaiting an upgrade to ADSL2.0

Sloworwot09 September 2010

.44mbps (thats point44) Down, .36mbps (yea point36) Up. Thats just rubbish ! -Help!

lewis Rowling09 September 2010

I pay for UP TO 20MB and i get 2MB download speed with .33 upload. this is the best they say i can get on my line ? then why not say we tested your line and its worth a quid a month as its so out dated a pigeon could get your message through quicker . that said I have just received a promotion from BT that after testing my line , say's i can get 19.4 MB download speed and 8,2MB upload speed ALL I NEED TO DO IS CHANGE TO THEM AND PAY FOR THERE SUPPER SPEED INFINITY PACKAGE . the only thing is, in there small print it is all down to your location from the exchange ,well there's the rub.lol

Daniel Williams09 September 2010

My internet speed isn't gret but why are all my services price fixed, just because of where I live! http://tiny.cc/jrz9s PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!

AndyInyork09 September 2010

Just done your test and found out i pay for UPTO 8mb with talk talk but can only receive 2mb. I called the customer services to complain and spoke to a rep in india I think who states that I infact get my broadband free as my £18 fee a month is for line rental and call package. I told them what i thought of that, they stated that it was the distance from my exchange of which was the problem and to consider moving if i wanted a better speed how dare they tell me where to live!!!! I called Bt and they quoted same speed and plans to upgrade my line would be jul 2011 and would increase my line speed to wait for it 2.5mb WOW I was shocked what a improvement not. Come on isps and BT exchanges get your act together this is the age of computers and streaming tv we need to get a better system in place and move forward. I did this test numerous years ago when the gadget show did the survey and got the same results not alot seems to have changed.

JJ09 September 2010

Surely the only result of this test is that Apple should launch a broadband product that would be absolutely brilliant like everything else they do? Oh, and perhaps you need to stop stirring up a riot mob by explaining that you can only receive a set speed depending on your line length in the case of Adsl as opposed to encouraging people 20 miles away from their exchange that their ISP is useless for not providing 20MBPS broadband to their front door.

Michael09 September 2010

I can't believe what I just found out on your test. I pay for BT business "up to" 20 meg but actually I’m getting less that 2 which frankly a disgrace considering what I’m paying per month. I know there is a little problem with the area but I didn’t think it was quite so bad. BT won’t be upgrading in my area by next summer at the latest what a waste of my money until then.

Tel09 September 2010

I am with Virgin Media and got an average speed of 9.5Mb download, 0.45Mb Upload. Paying for 10Mb so spot on really. Others are commenting that they are only getting 10Mb when paying for 20Mb, It's worth phoning Virgin as I did some time ago and it was their old modem that was the issue. They replaced this and everything worked fine afterwards.

Cinziachi09 September 2010

Hi everyone! As I can see with all the comments it is possitive sure that something must be done! the "UP TO" has to be eliminated. I have a 10MB broadband and just get around 6MB if that. Even without taking the test I could easily notice that the speed of my broadband was slow and not to the standard it should be. I will vote to take off the " UP TO" and just come out clear of how much we will get. We pay for a quantaty and that's what we should get. Members of the Gadget show I do hope you change things and you have our support, even if that means going out and break HELL! ( joke) c

Steven Gibbs09 September 2010

Tried this test and had my ISP check the line seems that a point to check is your IP Profile - my line was restricted to a miserable 1750 even though the exchange could have delivered a slightly less miserable 2750.

Claire09 September 2010

Hi I'm with TalkTalk which states "up to 24 Meg" When I rang to join TalkTalk I was told my postcode would get 17 Meg. Running several speed tests at different times of the day my averages were: Download: 0.45 Mbps Upload: 0.23 Mbps Clearly this is no where near the 17 Meg I was told I'd get. After several phonecalls they have still failed to improve upon this. My advice: Avoid TalkTalk at all costs, it's cheap for a reason.

Jan09 September 2010

Absolutely crazy! I'm paying to fiber optic connection £21/m for last year to Virgin. It should be 20Mb and what the test shoved? 9.54Mb and 0.45Mb I think we should ask money back! Anybody with me? PS: thanks Gadget show, you are the best!

davescant09 September 2010

Just tested my Virgin Media b/band for the second time, average over 5 runs was 9.49Meg. This was at 14.15 so again all in all not too bad

robert09 September 2010

these companys are a joke iv gone from aol to talk talk as talk talk have taken them over and tiscali and 4 others if you mean to try to sort this out stop playing with toys and sort this problem for real everyone is being led round and round in cicles.it must be having a big industry effect to

Brian09 September 2010

I am with BT and have a complaint (with BT at the moment) about the up to 20Mb service I am paying for. I used to get about 8 Mb, then Line upgrade got me 4Mb (Yes an upgrade) then I think another upgrade got me 3Mb, although I often get 1Mb, which renders BT Vision On Demand service a little, erm, less Demanding. For the Full package Option 3 customer, for some years now, I feel trapped and powerless. I can sometime get the 1Mb to jump back to 3 by using their speedtest website, but I can only do that every hour.

Mrsean09 September 2010

I totally dissagree with this campaign. I am a "normal" broadband user but the Gadget show are simply clouding the issue. You don NOT pay for the speed of your line. You usually pay for the amount of bandwidth you use, so if your line is slower you can still download the same amount - it will just take longer. The ISP sell it as UP TO 8Mbps because that's exactly what it is! It is a synch speed based on your line quality and length. The further you are away the lower the speed will be. This is a fact of the technology a campaign won't solve. They would only be lying if they gave you OVER 8Mbps - would you complain then? Most ISP's now have a speed checker, you put your phone number in and they give you a rough idea of what to expect. This is good, but won't change from ISP to ISP as your line is the same line. A worse offender in my opinion is the providers who sell you upto 20Mbps or 8Mbps service, be honest with you about that and say "well yes we can get you 14Mbps" but then traffic manage and throttle certain traffic at certain times of the day. On some ISPs terms, services like youtube are throttled DELIBERATLEY in the evenings. This is what the campaign should look at, deliberate reductions not reductions caused by line length and congetion. However this practice is OFCOM approved. The only solution to faster BB for all is for BT to improve the infrastructure and raise the capicity. In general you will get a better faster service with smaller indipendant ISPs who don't over sell their capacity and don't traffic manage. But you will pay more for it. This obsession with a download number of a web test is very poor. Use bts own speedtester page and check www.kitz.co.uk to check your line length. Learn how to understand your router stats. PEOPLE - EDUCATE YOURSELVES. Gadget show has turned into a game show in recent times. It used to be about the gadgets and now it's about the presenters going on holidays. Hardly watch anymore. A wi-fi BB special covering all this would be very useful. Not ' I give this router 5 G's because it has lovely flashing lights and has a lovely shiny cover ' mmmmm.

J Shineton09 September 2010

Tested my Virgin Media broadband a few times on here now. Was absolutely shocked to be getting download results of 0.4/0.5Mbps!!. However, testing on the alternative suggested sites (Broadband Speed Checker and Speedtest.net) I was getting download speeds of around 6 Mpbs. Much more satisfied with this as thats around what I expected. My iPad doesn't seem to enjoy these speeds though! :(

Stephen Mumford09 September 2010

Sorry but you speed test does not seem to be accurate. I am on a 20 meg virgin connection and the fastest your speed checker gives me is nor more than 10 meg. If I use speedtest.net I get the full 20!!!!!!

James Longmore09 September 2010

Using talktalk and download speed on this says it's 1.38mbps and speedtest.net says 1.58mbps download speed. The talktalk site says up to 24meg on both different packages(Currently using the essentials package) and I'm getting less than 2mbps download speed.Its shocking how low my download speed is.

Leon 09 September 2010

for the last 9 months I have been battling with Talk Talk I am paying for 24 meg and on your test I am receiving 2.84mb on their site I get between 3 and 6 this has been going on for far too long now and I have done everything that I have been asked to do by the company,I had one week where I was receiving between 14mb and 16.8mb but after and before that period the speeds remained dropped, my line has been tested up to 18mb and last time they sent to the second line engineers the guy I talked to who was extremely rude informed me that I could only ever receive 10mb even though I had already received well over said amount previously, which after a while resulted in me hanging up, not very professional of me I know but after many hours on the phone to these morons I was suitably peeved, eventually they sent an engineer round to check everything out and guess what? yes you guessed it! nothing was wrong, so it would seem that they just aren't issuing me with the speed in the first place, my next step is to write another letter informing them, ever so sweetly of course that if the matter isn't sorted within 10 working days and I am fully reimbursed for my clear over payments to their company and time wasted (hourly rate!) on the phone attempting to sort the matter out that the next step is to move to Ofcom. with a copy of all letters and print out's of speed's, this I fear may result in a fruitless venture but it would seem is the only course of action left, it make me wonder just ho many people get completely diddled out of their money and time and eventually give up and move on to someone else who turns out to be just as bad if not worse...if they can't provide you with a service they shouldn't advertise it plain and simple...it's day light robbery and if we ..joe public that is were to rob people for the millions that they do every month am pretty sure we'd all be spending some time at her majesties pleasure, and quite a bit of time too.

Mrsean09 September 2010

Why does the poll only ask faster or slower than expected? Surely there should be a nuetral option of "It's just as I expected and I am happy" The poll is designed to obtain the result gadget show want - or it's just poor poor research. With regards to the comments above - the gadget show speedtester is 'pump' and would not be trusted by any ISP or BT and therefore devalues the whole campaign. It does however get the Gadget show a lot of publicity. UP TO = UP TO | A perfectly acceptable term. You are happy when you buy a car that does UP TO 60mpg. Yes it will, on a closed test track. Just as you will get max speed if you live close to the exchange. It's really not difficult. Research before signing up. EDUCATION EDUCATION not tabloid style campaigns PLEASE!

sue morris09 September 2010

I was not surprised at the speeds i registered.My service from BT is terrible.Apparently i'm right on the edge of the area but still pay the same as someone closer.I am in the middle of a huge estate of houses all with telephone lines which would suggest that a lot of people are getting substandard service.Calls to bt have no effect.

Tes Gregory09 September 2010

My broadband is Sky unlimited. Done tests through out the day and the download speed differs quite a bit from 12.57 to as low as 4.26. The upload speed has remained between 0.87 and 0.91.

Mark Tsang09 September 2010

Good download speed (9.45 Mb/s against a promised 10). upload speed, however, is only 0.45 Mb/s! Why such a big difference between the two??? Forgot to say, I'm using a wireless connection.

Zedfragg09 September 2010

Hi, I would just like to leave some feedback on your current "Broadband Speed" Campaign poll. I really like what you're doing here and support you fully. However, it may be a good idea to add an option to your poll. Currently you have "Slower than expected" or "Faster than expected" and I suggest you add a "Speed as advertised" option as my connection with Virgin Broadband is supposed to be 50mb and I'm getting 47mb (Believe me thats on target as Blueyonder/Virgin are normally AWFUL with their speeds) Also I'd suggest to people testing that they do this check at several points throughout the day at on peak and offpeak times before they submit the poll, if at any point it drops below what you are paying for then you are being ripped off! Also I'd like to see you guys (and girls) at the Gadget Show campaign against the "Fair Usage Policy" most ISP's enforce as I have myself attacked companies over this and would love to see the cause get more publicity. Zedfragg

Zedfragg09 September 2010

@Mark Tsang Upload speeds are often very, very slow. However, they are more than adequate for gaming etc. Unless you plan on uploading some extremely large files I'd say don't worry about it. Also if you check your ISP's website and documentation etc more often than not they state that upload speed will be up to 2mb and 90% of the time it'll balance around 1.25mb which is very slow but again adequate for gaming etc. If anything count yourself lucky I remember being on Blueyonder/Virgins 10mb line and having a 0.50mb upload speed which caused playing the Xbox 360 online to become an absolute horror of an experience!

Leon09 September 2010

Uplaod was 470kb V.poor and disappointing, download 9.49mb of 10mb well i pay for 10mb so it's ok. 17:30

Wes09 September 2010

I find it shocking that service providers haven't upped their standards since your last campaign. I am on Virgin's 10mbps service and on average, when downloading, I get around 100 kbps. The speed checker on this website said I was getting 0.87 mbps tops. This is ridiculous, as I download a lot and it's frustrating that I can't download without worrying about time. It's time ISPs got their act together...

Snowcrash09 September 2010

Your pole doesn't have a "it's what I expected' part to vote. Only higher or lower. I have upto 8Mb and normally get about 3.2 actual. Router says 4.5. I was annoyed when the connection kept dropping and was getting 2Mb for 6 months. Talking to India didn't help (BT line) 'cos they just talk from a script and have no clue. Eventually they sorted the exchange. I would like to watch HD online but 3.2Mb is not enough for real time.

tony09 September 2010

i'm on virgin 10 meg on your test i'm getting 9.6 download speed

Gussie Cook09 September 2010

Hi I am on BT up to 20 meg broadband but was told that I could only expect a max of 8 meg so I am pleased to see that at 17.15 I am getting just over 12 meg down & 0.6 up as 1700 is about peak time in this area my average is about 12.4 & 6.4 using broadband watchdog tester

Alun Msyk09 September 2010

On bt im surpposed to be getting upto 20 mbps i have just done the test as well as yours bt i did 5 other tests & bt said 1.5 download & upload all the rest said 1.3 download & 0.37 mbps upload. Bt say it depends on how many people are on how far you are from the exchange & the weather i dont know how that makes a different cause the cables are under ground

Internet User09 September 2010

ha the irony... the page just before the internet speed tester had an advert from BT stating that their certain home hub(the one i have) had brilliant speeds and provided great speed when you needed it most. Used the speed tester and got an apauling download speed atleast 90% less than what they advertise. This might just be time of day or they are having a fault but ive used speed testers many times before and i have never seen my speed to reach anywhere near what is advertised.

Chris09 September 2010

Despite AOL advertising and mentioning in various correspondence that our internet speed would be "up to 8mb" i was shocked to discover after completing this check, that our connection speed is a slow 1.54mb!! AOL do include in their correspodence a reminder that connection speed may vary depending on location and equipment but i really didnt expect pur connection to be that slow!

Neil McCall09 September 2010

I am offered UPTO 20Mbs. I ran the test and my download was 1.42Mbs and upload 0.37 Mbs. I thought it was a mistake and ran it again and got same result. This is disgusting, i'm paying for something which i'm not getting.

Alex09 September 2010

Absolutely shocking. I pay for 20 MB broadband with unlimited downloads through SKY, your test showed I was getting a bafflingly slow 0.21 MB. 100 times slower than I pay for, wonder if I can get away with paying 1 percent of my bill.

Bedders5209 September 2010

I'm on Virgin and pay for 20mb and have consistently been getting upto 19.5mb for some time now. I think the service is first class.

Graham09 September 2010

I use Virgin's Cable 10Mbps Service and consistently get around 9.59 download and 0.47 upload speeds using Virgin's Netgear wireless router. I optimised my TCP/IP settings using TCP Optimiser. Me I have no complaints about Virgin's cable broadband service

Jay09 September 2010

Hey, I'm with Sky and on joining I was informed this: "Your Sky Broadband & Speed Estimate You have Sky Broadband Unlimited which offers a maximum download speed of up to 20Mb The estimate provided to you at purchase for the maximum download speed your line can support was 10-20Mb." I took your online test 3 times and the result averaged at 7.7mbs a far cry from I should be expecting. Jay

Kb09 September 2010

I pay for 10meg with Virgin and having run the test I was suprised to find that I was getting 9.23 meg. This test was done at tea-time which is notoriously busy. I also connect like other users via wi-fi but do not seem to loose anything in speed.

SteveM09 September 2010

I have Virgin 10 Mbps cable service. Through a wireless router to my laptop I achieved 9.43 Mbps download speed using your test. I cannot complain about this.

Ken Evans09 September 2010

Heyyyyy I am realy cheesed off! I just took your bb test D*AMN ITs,,,,,,,,, 0.45mbps !!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm with Talk Talk but not for long!

Gill09 September 2010

We have sky on a BT line. My son is on his x box and I got a speed of 1.08 on my netbook. Apparently sky cant do anything about it because its BT's fault! I am not much of a Techie but that looks rather feeble compared to other comments. Love show despite not being a techie but then you dont have to like cars to enjoy Top Gear!

Keiren Grant09 September 2010

The gadget show speed checker is not accurate. What is the speed check server internet speed? I have 50 MB but gadget show internet speed test rated it as 7 Mbps and 700 Kbps but other broadband speed testing websites averaged out on 45 Mbps and 3 Mbps

dave 09 September 2010

very very disapointed with sky. live on a new build site and signed up to sky straight away, paid for extra "UPTO" 8mg from which i now know i never have had, i was lucky tp be getting 2mg, of course when i found this out i cancelled it straight away and after months of calls and arguments got a % refund but nowhere near what i had already paid out. done your test today and im still only getting around 1.7 mg, an absolute rip of and surely something the trading standards should be looking at abit more in depth

Dave Kellock09 September 2010

Very good result upto 10meg and i am getting 9.54 ! must be a faulty programme. Upload is rubbish though 0.46 meg

Josh09 September 2010

I pay for a 20meg internet service from virgin media and i get bang on 20meg all the time. peak time or no peak time very happy with it and think the poll needs an answer "i get what i expected"

Phil M09 September 2010

Im supposed to be getting 24meg from talk talk i have done the test about six time and the fastest speed i have got is 3.22meg. Where is an isp that actually gives you the stated speed? I bet there is few of them

martv09 September 2010

just tested my broadband (BE) getting 6.9 meg payin for 8meg cant complain for a laptop and wireless router.people need to shop around before jumping in with both feet and beliving the big guns.they only want your money and nothing else.

Richard09 September 2010

After watching the gadget show I decided to officially test the speed of my broadband connection with Sky (paying £10 per month for up to 8 meg but told to expect 5-6 meg). At peak time circa 9pm i'm getting a download of 0.17 and an upload of 0.38. This is disgraceful. We shouldn't have to pay for a service that isn't delivered!

Bullneck09 September 2010

I'm supposed to be on the "fastest download speeds" Sky have to offer ( UP TO 20MB!!), when reading my details I was apparently informed at purchase the maximum download speed my line can support is 4MB. According to your readings my actual download speed is 0.84MB, I'm staggered, what am I paying for?

KimDorset09 September 2010

You want to be the last house on the line from the telephone exchange! We pay Tesco Broadband for 0.5 MB and the download speed is 0.25 and upload is 0.36. BT cut off our broadband service 4 years ago as they said we were using it too much - LOL. People don't seem to understand that they can pay for a 20meg speed but if dear old BT don't provide the download speed on the line, you'll only get what it's capable of. I've invested in a 3G dongle which is a vast improvement. The Govt want to get on BT's case - they've got the monopoly for anywhere that cable don't want to be.

Paulv09 September 2010

I use virgin broadband. I have never had any issues with speed. They advertise 10mb and I get 9.6mb on your test.... Nice

Gary Millar09 September 2010

BT up to (ha ha) 8meg tested 9.30pm Gadget Show test> 1.85 MyBroadbandspeedchecker> 3.5 Broadbandspeedchecker>4 Gadget Show test is showing a lot slower than any other tester!

Darren Hardy09 September 2010

I am paying Virgin for 20MB broadband I am receiving 12.2 how annoyed am I Grrrrrrrrrrr

chris09 September 2010

paying for 8 only getting 6.4

Fred B09 September 2010

Not much of a suprise, d/l speed of 7.2 and upload of 0.78, paying for 20mb d/l and 2 upload.

kevin 09 September 2010

i got 0.62 download,and 0.35 upload,and im paying for 8 meg,aol you are a pathetic waste of money,and this is costing me £22.00 per month.... id be better off going back to dial-up..

Degzy09 September 2010

No surprises here as you get what yer get I'm afraid. I live within a mile of the BT exchange and have waited and waited for the 'unbundling' to take place but alas it just aint gonna happen. It is no use any of the ISP providers giving us a figure because the exchange has got to have the capability to provide such a connection. There would need to be a significant amount of investment to move to be anywhere insight of the speeds achieved in the USA for example. Why don't we all club together and have our own servers? Huzzah!!

Andy09 September 2010

BT was a little less than 8Mb (6.5 in fact)... so phoned up for my MAC code. After a dicussion I've got a better deal "upto" 20Mb (in reality it'll be around 14Mb), "unlimited" download....for less money... So it's always worth finding a better deal and see if your current ISP (if your happy with them) to match/better it

Rowan R09 September 2010

I'm with TalkTalk on an "up to 8Mbps" contract. I'm reliably getting 10-11 Mbps and often spike at considerably more (>20Mbps) for minutes at a time. All this over a wireless connection. I know TalkTalk has come in for a lot of grief in the past for their service but I've really never had any problems right from the start, I think I've maybe had about 5 days email down time in about 5 years.

Tony Gatt09 September 2010

I have been with sky broadband for about 1 year. i pay for 20md and i test 3 times a day, i have never had over 2.5mb. Not Good. I have tested all connections but still no good.

gill09 September 2010

with KAROO just done test for the 4th time .23 down and .31 up !!!!!!!!! this is ! pathetic waste of money total rip off Karoo have the MONOPOLY in hull but is denide if there was others Karoo would be out of buisness

Aaron Forrester09 September 2010

I'm supposed to get "upto 8meg" however, I it rarely tips over 1meg. I live 50 meters away from the bt hub as well, the actual local hub, not an exchange that you see at the end of the road...the actual hub a big building 50 meters from my house....it's disgraceful

JustWilliam09 September 2010

I too am on TalkTalk, on an "up to 8mbps" contract. I am running at 0.57mbps 'spiking' at nearly 0.7mbps!!! yes you are reading this correctly, I am not even getting 1mbps!! It is immensely frustrating. I can't even watch the smallest of video streams without pauses and judders. even music has to pause. OK, I am a bit rural, but only a mile from the nearest town. Yesterday TalkTalk switched me over to their brand new "next generation network", was I wrong to think I would get a faster connection? I think it has gone slower. Grrrrrrr. I can't read any more of this blog - everyone seems to be better off than me!! regards, Broadband-Pauper.

Stephen Kelly09 September 2010

I've just switched over my Phone provider to talktalk from BT! my internet provider isTiscali now owned by Talktalk. I am supposed to be able to achieve download speeds up to 20mb. after numerous tests I am getting 16mb, which some might consider to be good! However as I can look out of my front window and look at my Telephone exchange almost directly in front of my house, on the opposite side of the road I consider I should be able to achieve a higher speed as I can't get any closer to my exchange than this! more than most people can !

SeeJayBee10809 September 2010

Having used Broadband from the earliest days of BT I was first tempted away by Bulldog and that really was a nightmare, poor speed and atrocious handling of simple accounting transactions. Having invested in Cable TV it seemed logical to extend to cable Broadband and whilst I read of all the troubles that millions of subscribers are having with every other form I can only sit here smugly enjoying my actual 9.7 mbps - just below the 10mbps promised! It used to be NTL and now known as Virgin Media and I just can't find a bad word to say about it - Well done Virgin Media!

MAVRIK09 September 2010

im on skys max pack. when i started with them i was getting 16mb,that was 2 years ago now im down to 7mb at best ,this is after sky boosted me because i complained. they told me it was bt's fault because of old wires but mine where replaced when i went to sky.

kevin 09 September 2010

i got 0.62 download,and 0.35 upload,and im paying for 8 meg,aol you are a pathetic waste of money,and this is costing me £22.00 per month.... id be better off going back to dial-up..

Will09 September 2010

well i'm pleased to say i'm one of the happy people whose isp is virgin. I pay for 10mbps and get 9.35mbps. Cant grumble.

Davy Mccreight09 September 2010

After testing for over a week my speeds hit an all tine low of 0.17mbsp, this is crap I would be better off with dial up. This speed is after contacting sky last week( I am still waiting for a response) maybe I should not have contacted them!!! My advertised speed is UP TO 20mbps but so far the max has been 2.36mbps. Somthing has to be done I work in a sales environment so I understand how the truth can be obscured by some in jargon but I personally could not distort the truth as much and do my job as I believe that honesty is the best policy and this has always stood by this. Maybe it is time the ISP'S ran for Govennment they seem to b able to get away with as much with much less spin.

ian10 September 2010

10mb connection with virgin media, and always when i do this test im getting 9.5 to ten mbs .....................spot on virgin !!!

John Downs10 September 2010

I've got the Virgin 50 meg service, and I regularly check my speeds which are consistant at approx 49.5 megs and the upload is consistant at approx 1.5 megs which is spot on!

Mark Hornsveld10 September 2010

I use Talk Talk and before I signed up I was told that I would not get more than 4mb download although they say up to 20. On checking I get around 5mb,. so although better than expected, not nearly as good as it should be. They should not advertise nationally that you can get such good fownload speeds. I am sure this is for the few and not the many.

Brian Murray10 September 2010

My download speed is a joke, around 0.5MB, when I first went to BT, it was 3MB. The speed coming in to my street is only 1.3MB, but part of the village further away from the exchange than I am is getting 4.5MB as it has fibre optics in the street box. I am paying the same amount/per month as I did when I was getting 3MB, but even if I changed provider, the speed wouldn't change unless BT improves the out of date, and useless, cables.

Bill10 September 2010

I joined Plusnet some time ago and was very pleased with the service however the speed has got slower and slower I live some 3000 meters from the exchange bur still I only get 0.89Mbps download and 0.35Mbps upload I have been advised I should get a mininum of 6Mbps I thing this is a very poor servicefor £12.99 a month

Graham10 September 2010

Where's the option on the voting poll to say, "I am getting what I expect/pay for ?" Surely this is what we to record to show not only which providers are poor, but which are living "up to" their contract!

andy10 September 2010

wot a joke VIRGIN, pay for up to 20meg only get best speed of 4.33 and thats at 1.30 am

brian finn10 September 2010

im very suprised to fined that my speed is just over 3 mb ,i feel that bt have been very miss leading.

Stuart10 September 2010

I believe your campaign, whilst welcome in onse way, is actually very disengenious. Being someone whom is a network engineer I fully understand that UP TO Xmb imeans prcisely that - it is an indication of the maximum speed you might get depending on many factors. The main factors being distance from your exchange (we can't all live in Virgin fibre enabled areas), quality of that line and atmospheric conditions (yes, the weather does play a part). Other factors include the router you use, qulaity of the line in your house, etc, etc. As an example - I live a fraction over 3km from my exchange - my line length has been measured as being 3.24km. At that distance I should be able to get 5Mb or possibly 6Mb on a good day - however due to severe copper shortages in the 70's the estate I live in was built using an aluminium backbone for its telecomms infrastructure. Whilst this is fine for voice it cannot and will never be able to sustain the higher data throughput rates required and consequently I'm reduced to a 2Mb from my UP TO 8Mb advertised. But I come back to my initial point - it is only an "Up To" not a precise this is what you will get. I won't be entering the poll as it is misleading having only two options and I suggest adding some realism to your reporting on what is otherwise an excellent and very enjoyable show.

Albert Spiby10 September 2010

I used to be with BeThere and their advertised speed was "up to" 24Mb. I am 0.7 miles from the exchange and got around 17Mb. BUT I was told BEFORE I took out the contract that I could expect to get around that speed. That's very fair I think. I'm now with Virgin and pay for 50Mb and I'm getting around 48Mb. I think this is more than acceptable. I've also had no problems with the amount I download, not falling foul of any "Fair Use" policy. I do support your campaign though because not everyone is as lucky as I am. I do think you get what you pay for though.

DAVE10 September 2010

WELL CHUFFED WITH MY SPEED I PAY FOR 20 MEG AND AT 7 O CLOCK WAS GETTING 18 MEG VIRGIN HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE BEST ISP IN MY OPINION

Steve Smith10 September 2010

Although my speed is just over 3 Meg doing the day after 6.00pm my speed slows to 128Kb which means that I can only use my broadband during the day! Not handy when you work all day! This is the best speed I can get from many provider and makes a mockery of all the advertising and Governments touting of higher broadband speeds. The problem is BT and their slow work getting broadband out to villages and people not in towns and cities. I'm with Sky and they can't even give me the Unlimited package, so I've had to opt for the 40G download per month! The truth is something we're never going to get until the Advertising Standards Authority get their act together and make these companies tell us what we can expect in our areas. Good luck with your campaign, however the strangle hold I doubt will be broken.

MilkeySUFC10 September 2010

@jrockape: I suspect you're using a 802.11g wi-fi connection, which is too slow for 50Mbit/s. If you can upgrade to an 802.11n connection, you will get the full 50Mbit/s connection to the internet.

Rogan10 September 2010

I live in the Borders and we don't get great options around here but I was till told by O2 that I could get up to 6mg but more likely just get about 1.5mg, after doing the test I realised I'm lucky to be getting a third of that. My speed came up around the .5 mark every time. My upload was almost as fast at .3mg!! And I can't believe I said fast in that last statement.

Conor10 September 2010

Hi, My broadband speed is 2.3mbits, which I think is very poor!! I use BT as my ISP & have spoken to them as they even wrote to me 6 months ago saying I would now get 8mbs!! so when I said what about 20mb they just said upto!! so I said why can I not pro rata my payment based on actual line speed! I think this is a great idea, every month look at your average line speed & pay for what service you received! just like paying the phone bill you pay for what you use! Anyway BT didn't like my idea!! LOL wonder why. I do not think BT are alone they are all as bad as each other in my opinion. Rant over, Gadget show you have my vote to try & improve matters

Bill10 September 2010

I joined Plusnet some time ago and was very pleased with the service however the speed has got slower and slower I live some 3000 meters from the exchange bur still I only get 0.89Mbps download and 0.35Mbps upload I have been advised I should get a mininum of 6Mbps I thing this is a very poor servicefor £12.99 a month

brian10 September 2010

your speed checker is consistently slower than the standard one I use at http://www.speedtest.net/ - yours gave me 13Mb/sec and theirs gave me 16+Mb/sec just now - and other tests have been similar.

Coope10 September 2010

I'm currently with talktalk and pretty pleased with them so far, the speed i got was 13.95mbps for DL and 0.85mbps for UL, which is far better than i expected, But... when i use my Download manager it shows the speed im downloading at and its usually only about 2.2mbps.

kath brown10 September 2010

My line is only capable of 4 mbs and on the speedtest it was 3.34 but the upload was only 0.41 ouch Overall pleased so far with BT

Matt10 September 2010

2 Mbps from what should be an 8Mbps on Sky. A month or so ago I also wanted to move to an N wifi router, but Sky restrict you to their supplied router. I asked and asked for a resonable explanation. So with Sky yo're restricted to a slow connection and also can't even improve your wifi range. Something needs to be done to stop some of these practices.

Audio_thief10 September 2010

we are paying for 'up to 8 mb' and we are consistantly getting 0.05!!! outrageous!

zimmerphrame10 September 2010

speedtest would'nt even load up for me... some speed may be lost due to how you pc is set-up.. if you run windows xp/vista, you can use TCP OPTIMIZER... google it.it a free utility that adjusts the settings of your to suit your connection type... does'nt work with windows 7 though... there's a setting in windows 7 you need to change as windows saves bandwith for other pc's that maybe on the network... not helpful for your pc at home where there is no network... i've got virgin cable broadband, 10Mb, normally i get better than isp average, about 9Mb on speedtest.net, my speed dropped right down after i got a windows 7 64bit pc until i adjusted this setting... try this link, anything you do, you do at your own risk in regards to changing windows settings as suggested on the link.. http://www.winmatrix.com/forums/index.php?/topic/21743-windows-7-slow-internet-speed/

Chris10 September 2010

speed as expected (1mb) based on living in the sticks, would be nice to even get 2mbs

PeterV10 September 2010

Welcome back. Now, I'd like to talk to you about the Gadget Show's speed checker. I have a 20Mb Virgin connection. speedcheck.net gave me 19.4Mb. broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk gave me 19.36Mb I then ran Gadget Show's checker and got 7.3Mb I wonder who's right? I must say, in general day-to-day downloading it does feel much more like a 20Mb connection than a 7Mb one! I got similar results when Gadget Show ran the same campaign the other year. Made me wonder then, too, if their checker is deliberately slowing things down to make their campaign seem more relevant? Generally very pleased with my download speed via Virgin - I just wish the upload speed wasn't so bad! (0.7, consistently across all 3 tests, since you ask!)

Jarrod Hutt10 September 2010

We choose BT thinking they would be ahead of the game and give us fast broadband speeds and we have been monitoring this for months and we have never gone above 2.8mb and we have tried morning evening and nearly all scenarios, also fitted the free telephone socket device that BT recommends and still 2.8mb is on a good day and generally its a lot less so a little disappointed with BT as we are being charged for up to 8mb and getting no where near would mind if we go half of the 8mb . Its a shame why we cannot pay for what they supply and then it would make the "up to " comment work both ways and not just for the service provider

Alex10 September 2010

Although any broadband provider will tell us that we can get broadband, we can't!!! there simply isn't enough power on the line! but phone any of them and they will "test the line" and try to sell us their most expensive package. Infact we live in a pretty gadget dead enviroment, no broadband, no mobile signle, no 3G, heelllppppp!!

terri b10 September 2010

hi i got virgin 50m i only got 25 via wifi on my laptop, but i've actually got foil behind it to boost signal from the router. When plugged in i get 50+. but its not cool being plugged in.:-(...

Disgusted10 September 2010

Although the Gadget Show purports to be hi-tach and up to date they are in fact Victorian in attitude - be very PC in your comment or it will be rejected and you will have wasted your valuable time trying to help them in their campaign. Dis Tunbridge Wells

Simon Kidd10 September 2010

Got 4.7Mbps of the 20Mbps I'm paying for. should be getting it for a quarter of the price then. if only it were that simple.

martin10 September 2010

I'm paying BT for "up to" 20mb broadband and getting a fraction over 1mb. When signing up to them they did say the speed wouldn't reach the full 20mb but they said it would be about 4mb to 8mb depending on time of day, still a very long way out it would seem. Why am I paying the full price for a twentieth of the service.

l.winram10 September 2010

Speed of 11.2, which is actually faster than the expected speed of 9.0 that talktalk told us we could get. They offer an 'up to 24 Meg' service but make it very clear when you join, the rough speed they predict you can get. 11.2 seems pretty fair as we live in Aberdeen which isn't exactly a technological hotspot.

Shane10 September 2010

I was duped into signing upto TalkTalk. When their representative came to my home in order to "Sell" their product they told me that my Line was capable of 14.4mb.. I opted in to the Turbo Boost option to allow me to get close to the "maximum" speed possible at an additional cost. during the first 3 weeks of actually being on their service I was lucky to have a Stable connection for longer than 3 hours... and the Speed I was achieving was a paltry 3Mb. I was getting higher than that on my previous ISP. When phoning customer service.. They claimed that my line was only capable of handling 5mb.. I wanted to cancel and return to my previous ISP so I was transferred to the cancellation team, They told me my line was only capable of 7mb and that the only way I would be even remotely able to get the kind of speed they originally claimed my line could handle was to go to Fibre Optic *or in this case Virgin Media* I did an alternative line test, and found that my line according to BT wholesale was actually capable of 14.4mb as originally stated.. if anything as a Warning to anyone out there thinking of signing up with TalkTalk DON'T DO IT!!!!!!

Olive Shaw10 September 2010

Hi I live in a rural part of West Norfolk and our signal is just unacceptable. We hear complaints of people only getting 2 or 3 mbps, well I would love that level of connectivity, I get 0.47mbps download and 0.32 upload. Why am I paying for this rubbish service?

Dave10 September 2010

My package is up to 8mg getting on average 0.5 this is a rip off. unable to run even small video downloads without stop start. All the hype is rubbish about speed on connection to internet.

Dave Carratt10 September 2010

After upgrading my package recently to triple XL (broadband 20 meg) the test came back at a little over 7.2 ! When I rang to complain and pointed out that my modem had not been changed since the original install by Diamond Cable ! I was informed I would have to pay 50 quid for an upgraded one !!! well I soon told her where to get off !!! I then rang the broadband tech help and explained the situation and pointed out the Terayon modems limitations for download speeds, The guy totally agreed and Immediately despatched a new modem which arrived 2 days later.... the speed now is 17.8 much more like it !! So the moral is check your modem's capable of delivering the goods if your service has been upgraded ! Dave

Jeremy Newman10 September 2010

I am with Virgin Media, and have always been delighted with my broadband speed downloads. I pay for 10Mb and get 9.82Mb

Robert Davidson10 September 2010

Whilst any broadband provider will offer a speed up to, none of them are responsible for the poor line quality provided by BT. Until a cost effective solution or alternative to this is found, broadband speed will always be determined by the length of line from the exchange not who provides your service. Most lines were put in before dial up internet was available, let alone broadband. Solution - live as near to the exchange as possible!! Until providers are prepared to split the levels of service based on what can realisticaly be achieved, some of us will always feel ripped off by these speed claims.

alan10 September 2010

What a surprise! I found out I am getting double the speed I am supposed to be getting with my current supplier

debbie king 10 September 2010

my speed was need 10 which i thought was brillant for virgin well happy with them

Becky :)10 September 2010

Download speed of 4.03 was kind of expected because our internet is quite slow, but upload speed of 0.37 was a shock! Internet providers are definitely screwing us over!!

Glenn Penfold10 September 2010

I've had Talk Talk Essential for 3 months now and so far I'm very happy with it. When I signed up the advertised speed was up to 20MB but they told me on the phone and in documentation that I would get approximately 14.1MB. I've done your test as well as www.speedtest.net and I average about 13.5MB, worst 12.1 best 15.3, so on the whole I'm very happy. Also I've seen some comments about wireless speeds. Mine drops to about 9MB on the laptop, I guess an 'N' router and laptop dongle would help.

john davies10 September 2010

just done speedtest with your speedtest tool .it says i am getting 19kb i am on virgin 50 meg.10 seconds later gone onto speedtest.net says i am getting 48 meg.always showing faster speeds on speedtest.net.who's right?

matthew10 September 2010

using virgins 20mb service got downloads speeds of 18.1mb at 18.30hrs...great speed from virgin,tried other speedtesters and got around the same speeds

Oinkmonkey10 September 2010

i supposedly have tiscali 'up to' 8mb and have never seen above 4mb when i have tested my connection. today, i got 3.41mbps, which i would describe as 'high' for my connection. however, i do not not notice any difference between the speed i get on my computer and on my laptop over wi-fi.

Ann10 September 2010

We are with Plusnet: hard wired speed is 5.72 and .36, wireless: .12 and .36, (yes, point12!!). Not much I can say really. It's just unbelievable when we are paying for (up to) 20mb.

Jude10 September 2010

Well my broadband has just been "fixed" after having no service for nearly 4 weeks. Speed is less than 0.5 mg upload and download. Perfect - I wont do this test again as I dont have another half hour to spend on the challenge. Thanks Tiscali or talktalk. Thoroughly enjoyed their customer service conversations too - next call booked for Monday/ seems their customer service response is as slow as their broadband service `

Ann10 September 2010

We are with Plusnet: hard wired speed is 5.72 and .36, wireless: .12 and .36, (yes, point12!!). Not much I can say really. It's just unbelievable when we are paying for (up to) 20mb.

steven godfrey10 September 2010

hi guys @ gadget show, i was pleased to see that I am paying for a 20mb broadband and was actually getting 19.5mb at 8:30pm (peak time ON A FRIDAY NIGHT!!) and my ISP is virgin media so i just thought i'd let you know they dont always lie...

Direwind10 September 2010

I'm using Bethere, using the Ultimate account: * Up to 24 meg download * Up to 1.3 meg upload * Unlimited usage 12 month contract. Also available on a 3 month. £ 17.88 /month. now, while im not getting the 24mb/s, i do get the exact uploadspeed, and they did say i would get the full speed, i'm getting around 9/mbs and this is good, they also allow you to tweak your line profiles, changing voltage/sm margin noise levels doing this some people have gotten 24/mbs, they also are beta testing line bonding, where by you buy two bether accounts and merg them to get better performance. here is some info on that. double your speed Fancy having one of the UK’s fastest broadband connections? By bonding two lines at the exchange you can combine their speed. This can double your bandwidth to give you download speeds of up to 44 meg and upload speeds of up to 5 meg. Or you might live some distance from your exchange so line bonding will get you closer to the connection you’ve always dreamt of. A very smart wireless modem Line bonding uses two lines and combines their bandwidth. Our smart router joins the data so all you notice is faster upload and download speeds. * Dual ADSL2+ Bonded Router * 4 Port 10/100 Ethernet Ports + 2 standard USB ports * 802.11g Wireless LAN access point * USB 2.0 Host port for connecting devices such. Bethere support. is OK, not great, they pretty much use cut and paste replys. the network rarely comes down, and there is no speed trottling at peak time and they dont limit torrent use, and as far as i can tell there is no fair user policy, and i download large files all day long and all night and never had any complaints from them. so overall i think they are quite good.

Karelius10 September 2010

I think you should not concentrate on this phrase because everyone knows that you wont get that, and most service providers will tell you in the shop what your maximum is acording to your post code. You should concentrate on the fact that people are not being told about the fair usage policy that they all have. It means if you use too much internet then they limit your speed. It is not mentioned and can only be found by reading the small print

Simon Dodd10 September 2010

I'm with BT and pay for up to 8 Meg, that they recently upgraded so some can get 9 Meg. I get a whopping 0.94 Meg! as I live in the countryside. I've complained to BT before but get nowhere. I'm glad you have started a campaign and I hope it makes a difference! Simon

manamaga10 September 2010

I pay SKY for the max speed and uncapped broadband 'upto' 20MB, having done numerous tests over 2 weeks at differnt time of the day, i get a little over 10MB, nearly half of what i`m paying for. Now the question is......if i downgraded my broadband to the 'upto' 10MB package, would i get maxed out broadband all the time or would i get around 5MB??? Worth pondering over.

Mark10 September 2010

Hi Everyone, Just ran test and its prompted me to change my ISP. I have BT broadband and they state "up to" 8meg, but promise 2meg. after the test my download speed was average of 0.21 meg. I called BTs customer services and they could not offer an explanation or any help. Im now on route to virgin media as Im out of contract with BT. I hope the UK ISPs can fix this ever growing problem.......very very soon. thanks!

Phil Turner 10 September 2010

When you last did broadband checks I was with Virgin and I had been having real problems with them for about 18 months getting less than 2mb out of the 20 expected and for long periods less than 0.5. Well after months and load of letters they got their act together and I started getting 10 to 15 mb. It lasted less than 6 months thouh and shut down completly Jan 2009. I gave then a month to sort it and still nothing so I sacked them ans switched to Sky. Now Sky advertise 20mb but they do warn you it depends on your area and the BT exchange and they gave me an estimate max speed before I signed up (granted only 4mb). But I was more concerned with getting stability than lighting fast. When installed I get between 4 and 12mb better than they forcast really though with your speed check to night it said 3mb but I have 2 others and they came in at 8 and 10mb .One thing I have to say unlike Virgin it's not broken down yet

izachari10 September 2010

I'm on BT total broadband, which says i can get up to 20meg speeds. i tested my speed and it gave me a speed of 1.6 meg. I am using wifi, but my laptop says my connection is excellent.

mxb10 September 2010

I pay for "up to" 20Mb with Sky and live about 5km from the exchange. Getting no better than 0.6, even at 10.30 at night! It was somewhere around 1.4 when I joined up a few weeks back. Suspect it won't get any faster under the wire is replaced or they build another exchange! Therefore, never! :(

Uunknown10 September 2010

i am supposed to a get 8mbps but after i took your test i was shocked to see that i was getting only 0.36 on download and 0.65 on upload speed. i am wondering of quiting sky as i am with sky .

BEN MORGAN10 September 2010

I have tust tried the speed tester for a second night and the results are the same.1.69/1.70 download and 0.5 upload.For the money i am being charged i think its a rip of.(up to)20 meg .it stinks

markemark10 September 2010

I have been having trouble with my ISP (BT) since it was installed. I get 12 - 18 meg off peak and 3 - 5 peak this is because since we went on the higher bandwidth so has everybody else so the exchange board which had 40 on it has now got its max of 200. Now when everybody goes on at peak time’s 1500hrs schools out and 1730hrs people home from work I drop really low and slow. Answer from first call to ISP "go on at other times"!!! The biggest problem which doesn't get much of a look in is drop offs or disconnects. When it rained we would drop off and take 5 mins to get back on again this was monitored by myself and in one day I lost connection 36 times and then I stopped counting. To cut a very long story short I was lied to by the people in India, told to do stupid things to help me stay connected, like "don't use Wi-Fi we have found it doesn't work well in your area" funny I have used Wi-Fi for years without a problem until I joined BT. So as I said to cut it short I checked everything after one engineer came and found nothing (red hot day no rain) So the next engineer was told by myself to change the wire from the pole to the socket inside the house he said "that would not be the problem". Well would you know it no more drop offs. 40 + year old ally wire replaced with copper and everything sorted. On checking the removed wire that the engineer did not want to show me I found cuts, frays and general wear. The point I am making is I would not let them tell me any rubbish and withheld part payment until it got sorted out plus I got compensation for the loss over the months this happened. I say to all check your speed and log it with any drop offs over a full week and if you are getting a lot less than you pay for contact your ISP and do not get fobbed off with their line test that never shows up what your complaining about or swap to another room etc.. The ISP should give you what you pay for if they don't keep on pushing for what you should get or at least somewhere near. There are still people out there that are on 40+ year old wire that may be ally and sub standard for today’s digital bandwidths. We pay now for Broadband and not for speed and they push whatever speed they can at us, may this be the answer to the UP TO speeds? No it’s just a way of saying or not saying what they can give you. Why did I not move to another ISP? Because you have a contract to stay for 12 months even after the cooling off period you expect them to sort out any problems. I think old wires, larger bandwidths, phones, TVs all using the old analogue wires, is it a wonder we get so many problems with speeds and drop offs? ;-(

Manish Patel11 September 2010

I have 50mb BB with virgin media, I got a speed of 46.8MB in the speed test on your website. So I am very happy with my speeds, my speed varies depending on time of day, but I usually get over 45mb/s so I love it. My upload is a very good 1.5mb/s

greg smith11 September 2010

me too wireless i get 20mg wired i get 49mg virgin router or laptop who can tell me

Steve11 September 2010

Curren isp is Virgin Media and the advertised speed is 10mbps and getting 9.6mpbs woot! Good times Last isp was Tiscali.. or Talktalk.. or whatever they are now and instead of the 8mpbs being paid for we'd barely ever get more than 1.5mbps! Pathetic. Definitely do not go with them people >.<'

georgeL11 September 2010

download speeds from 0.73Mbps at 17.00 on evening to 6.27Mbps at 06.30 on morning average = 3.49Mbps but if you take out the early morning one average is 1.40Mbps. this was over five days

David Brown11 September 2010

I have Virgin Media 10Mb, and on all speed checkers I get dang well very near to 10Mb irrespective of day, or time of day. Absolutely brilliant apart from the Indian call centre they call "Customer service".

Stephen Berwick11 September 2010

I am on Sky's Unlimited package with 'up to 20MB' but it was made clear to me when I signed up I could expect 2-3MB due to my distance from the local exchange. My sync speed is 1.99 down and 0.65 up so I am under no illusions of it's speed. I have been pleased with it's performance and whenever I am downloading I am getting near my full 1.99MB download contiinually. Whilst it is not the best in the world, it is the best I can get, so I am happy.

Mike Aboud11 September 2010

9.6MB for download I think is about as good as it gets (Virgin, on a wireless connection) but 478K upload? Is such a discrepancy normal?

Greg11 September 2010

We have Orange Home broadband. They say that we have up to 20 meg speed, when you phone them they say that our area has 6.5 meg speed, which is correct.

dannyyboy11 September 2010

i'm with virgin media and i am paying for 10mb, my result was 9.45mb download over wifi - there was no option to select this is what i expected to get and it seemed unfair to vote slower than expected.

Mikey11 September 2010

Hello, I'm with BT - I'm supposed to get up to 8MB Broadband, but the maximim I can get currently is 2MB ! I think it's time they were legistlated against - they've had time to put there own house in order - clearly the majority of us are paying for a service were simply not receiving - not happy :-( additionally my broadband is even worse at peak times - this means on occassion I can't view the "iPlayer" for example) and I am left wonderwing what i'm paying for - I have contacted my provider in the past only to be told (2MB) is the maximum speed your line can support !

Mikey11 September 2010

Hello, I'm with BT - I'm supposed to get up to 8MB Broadband, but the maximim I can get currently is 2MB ! I think it's time they were legistlated against - they've had time to put there own house in order - clearly the majority of us are paying for a service were simply not receiving - not happy :-( additionally my broadband is even worse at peak times - this means on occassion I can't view the "iPlayer" for example) and I am left wonderwing what i'm paying for - I have contacted my provider in the past only to be told (2MB) is the maximum speed your line can support !

Tracy11 September 2010

I'm a happy Virgin customer now, on a 10Mb package and got 9.8Mb download speed each time I tested (although only about 0.5Mb upload speed?). Much better than when I was on Tiscali/Talk Talk and only getting 2.3 MB :)

Paul Davies11 September 2010

I'm with Talk Talk (soon to be leaving) they claim "UP TO" 24Mb - I get 6.4-6.8. ..

Brandon Willoughby11 September 2010

I have BT's much hyped BT Total Broadband and have tried the speed checker at different times of the day. I believe BT Total Broadband is advertised at 8.0mbps, I am only getting 0.47 mbps upload and 0.37 mbps download. I assume one of the reasons for this is the distance from the phone exchange, but in 2010 you would expect better. As suggested a letter is currently on its way to my ISP.

Tony11 September 2010

More than happy with the consistant 6meg from TalkTalk considering we live out in the sticks in Lincs.

frazzer11 September 2010

Tiscali - 1.33 down & 0.36 up. Do live out in the sticks, but no sign in any speed improvement here in the last 5 years.I also work in a very rural (remote) area - BT business dont seem to care that we cant get broadband to work. Seems fast speeds are only in big towns & cities?

Josh Wilson11 September 2010

I must say the broadband speed that i should be getting is up to 20 mb. On the test it showed i am only getting 3.33 mb. That is not what i expected at all.

Bladeburner11 September 2010

I'm with Virgin media cable on a medium package (20 meg I think!), I'm getting around 7 meg on download. Lower than I expected but as I never download movies/music etc I guess I don't need all that speed as surfing web pages is pretty much instant as it is. I might just go to a cheaper package if this is the case and a refund would be nice!!

Greg Finch11 September 2010

My speed was 9.57mps when its ment to be 10 so im happy with that. thats with virgin media by the way

Richard11 September 2010

Sky up-to 20mg gives me only 2 regardless off wi-fi or direct connection. Seems to be fairly constant day or night when downloading files.... I'll be sending a letter!

Ian Smallwood11 September 2010

I have issues with my broadband speed and have done now for the past two and half years and could write a book about the phone calls, compensation reimbursements, letters, Open Reach engineer calls, but will keep it brief and up to date. My provider is BT and I am an 'Option 3' customer and my exchange is some 4500 metres from my property, so to ascertain a high speed, I will not receive and I accept that. To be told the exchange is now on the 'new' ADSL2+ system (I'm not that switched on re what these systems are, but I'm learning fast !) I would receive better speeds and it has been very marginal in that I did receive around 1700kbps, but now should receive 3000kbps. I was told if I took out a contract in June this year for a further 12 months, they would guarantee I would obtain a speed of 3 meg. This did happen, but every week or so, the speed (IP profile) drops from 3000 to 2750 to 2000 and if I don't keep a check on the speed it could and has dropped to 1750, which in turn drops my actual speed. I do have to admit BT are very good in feedback and contact you when they say they are, but unfortunately dealing with a helpdesk somewhere in Asia doesn't help matters. As I write this, I am awaiting a call from BT re my speed issue as it is 2000kpbs now and should be 3000kpbs. I do realise I could switch to a cheaper provider, but feel I would still have issues, but at least with BT, they are the line 'owners' and know if I have any issues, they will deal with it, usually within 24 hours. Ian, Wakefield, West Yorkshire

Brian Barnes11 September 2010

Oh you people are so lucky. I recently visited the UK and downloaded some stuff I bought. 44 seconds to download 31.5 MB @ 721KB/s Back in South Africa and a 24.9MB download took 16.31 minutes @ 25.7KB/s and I'm charged about 50 pounds per month for this unbelievable speed.

fentan11 September 2010

After the test i was quite supprised to find that my 3 dongle was dishing out 2.7

alec11 September 2010

Downloaded at 47 mbps when I have supposedly 50 mbps but am happy with that

les11 September 2010

im with talk talk and they say 8mbs with the test it came back as 3.9 download and 0.34 upload in evening then did test in afternoon down was 5.9 upload was 0.42 i would like what they promised but they did say they are working on improving there braodband but im not to worried as when i signed to them few years back my package included free braodband and that is what i still get with unlimmited download so the way i look at it` as most on blog say about providers t&c`s Is read small print we all have a choice if you dont get what your paying for if you can try another provider - dare i say are the service providers reading all these post`s

Martyn Law11 September 2010

My speed was what i expected but there is no vote for this.

Bob11 September 2010

Wasn't overly surprised as I noticed a lag with my broadband, though when I originally signed up I actually recieved almost the full 8Mbps though that has slowly continued to drop since.

Dave11 September 2010

TalkTalk estimated upto 8Mb download speeds and I regularly get 10Mb so am happy with the speed. They appear to have blocked torrents which I understand is them trying to clamp down on illegal downloading, however not everyone uses torrenting for illegal uses so that is a bit annoying. Maybe its the lack of illegal downloads going on that gives me the higher download speeds ... swings and roundabouts really.

Henry11 September 2010

My connection's advertised as up to 8MB/s, and tested at 5MB/s. My broadband's from Sky, the person I spoke to on the phone setting up my account was very open and honest about the variance in the speeds and explained it all very simply and to a good level of detail. Sky deserve some credit for this I think.

Adrian Winter11 September 2010

at 12.00 noon on Saturday 11.09.10 I got 9.49 download and 0.44 upload via Virgin Cable Broadband, This on a Sony Viao Laptop on a wireless link. Not sure what I'm supposed to get tbh but it seems OK.

ceaseruk11 September 2010

im with Talk Talk that super broadband provider of upto 20mb but im actually getting 1.6mb

Peter Beverley11 September 2010

My results were 4.67 Mbps download speed and 0.82 Mbps upload speed. This seemed high compared to other speed tests that I have previously run. My ISP is BT and I am using a BT HomeHub, BT's advertised download speed is "up to" 8Mbps, but to be fair when I signed up I was told that my maximum speed should be 3 Mbps with a typical download speed of about 1.5 Mbps. I ran the test on Saturday morning just after seeing the item on Channel 5. Fully support your campaign as it is very misleading and people often get "locked in" to bad contracts.

Damian Murray11 September 2010

Pretty much what I expected. 5.5mbps download from an 8mbps service from O2. It does vary a lot though. Have seen it as low as 2mbps and more and more it is dropping out completely!

Gadget Steve11 September 2010

A nice result - Down 5.9Mbits/sec Up 0.83 Mbits/sec - On talktalk in Yeovil - not especailly cllose to the exchange and running test on a laptop via wifi. Not bad at all.

Ged11 September 2010

I am paying Sky £10 a month for an up to 20 meg down load speed !! I have just checked it and am only getting 0.35 - 0.5 mbps !!!! What a joke. Not only that but I have complained to Sky several times about losing my connection on a daily bassis and have had to have two replacement modens - Not a good sign. Great show. Ged

steve 11 September 2010

i joined sky and pay for there "upto" 20 meg, to find out the highest i recive is 5.6 meg , i am very dissapointed about this and do think it is wrong, i will be phoning my isp and reducing my package so a cheaper one as i belive they are taking the mick charging me for 20 but only giving me 5

Tosh11 September 2010

I'm with SKY "up to 20MB" broadband..........EH NO. I tested my broadband speed at 12.00 on a satuday and got a massive (sarcasm) 1.5 MB and upload speed of 1/2 MB. what are the optimum conditions you have to have in order to receive the HOLY GRAIL of 20MB?

malgpz90011 September 2010

With Tiscali/Talk Talk. Paying for up to 8 MB getting 1.39 mbps download and 0.36 mbps upload. Complained to ISP but usual answer that actual speeds are dependant on BT Exchange and how for away from it. Terrible speeds for a densely populated urban area. Daughter lives less than a mile away, and is further away from her exchange and she gets nearly three times better speeds.

Kevin Greig11 September 2010

Hi download is 4.17 upload around 0-65 considering I'm on 20mb from sky think this is cr**. Tried it a number of times enen wired but just the same.

CableGuy11 September 2010

I've been on the Virgin 10Mb package for a couple of years, and never failed to get over 9Mb speed at any time of the day/week. Absolutely the optical fibre route is best.

wayne holt11 September 2010

as a gamer speed is inportant to me and with your test i have found at 12.14pm on a Saturday lunch i am only getting 3meg when i am paying for 10 meg from VIRGIN. i am not very happy with this as i thourt i was just not any good at Call Of Duty World At War 2.

Paul Lovegrove11 September 2010

Having just completed the broadband speedtest I found that I am getting around 50% of the speed that I am paying for....as suspected! What I don't understand is how the speed fluctuates at different times of the day? Although sold as "broadband" the flow rate still ends up coming through a standard BT telephone socket and cable and as such I cannot see how an ISP would be able to "push" more speed through it. Compared to the speeds consumers enjoy in Japan and the USA we are still in the dark ages, but are paying 21st century prices for the use.

Laserjim11 September 2010

I've been with BT since it changed from lineone to Tiscali and then broadband. The UP TO 8MPS is a farce. The best I get is 23kbps,yes thats right kbps. The best I ever got was 127 kbps. I keep hearing the excuse that it's the distance from the exchange but my boss lives 1/2 mile from the same exchange and has the same problem. I can look out my front window and see the BT research center in Martlesham Suffolk but I can't get fast broadband. Dialup was just as fast as my broadband is now. For the past two months I have been in contact with their help center. I have done all the tests and everything and last week an engineer came and worked on my system. He changed the main socket and the line line to the green box. Still no joy. I was supposed to be contacted to make another appiontment for an to continue the work. It's like pullling teeth getting them to do anything. I believe that their equipment is outdated and they don't want to update it. And I also believe that they cant keep up with the demand. I am being charged for a service I'm not getting

imran11 September 2010

I am on Virgin 20Mb, and got around 8MB download, I was disappointed as we're in a proper cabled area but having read some of the comments I feel pretty lucky to be getting this speed !!

Mark Stevens11 September 2010

As expected my broadband speeds were way down on what i should be getting and paying for. I have complained time and time again to my ISP....BT, but to no avail, all they say is that my speed may be slower because my server is not closer to my home...what a cop-out. Why don't they invest the money they obtain from their customers, get their fingers out and correct the situation they've put us in. Other countries are putting ours to shame, we are a third world country in this particular field. Well done Gadget Show in again raising this issue, let's hope it has the desired affect.

Belar19211 September 2010

A guide or links to what the results mean could help guys? for me With Virgin XL (copper not the much advertised fibre) 3 consecutive tests Download 9.48, 7.37, 8.58 - Upload 0.47, 0.37, 0.47. the later seems a bit pants but who knows

sharon11 September 2010

i was surprised how slow my broadband is i have a download speed of3.61mbps and my upload is 0.21mbps

Steve D11 September 2010

I pay what IO consider to be quite a lot of money for Virgin Media's 20Mg service. Using both your speed test software and that of Speedtest.net I'm getting an average 18.5 download and 0.7 upload. All in all not bad considering this is via a Netgear WiFi router to my IMac via Airport. Top marks to Virgin (just need to reduce the price a little)

David 11 September 2010

I'm paying for 20 mbps but am only getting 10 mbps and that's actually from a recent upgrade. I had only been getting 5.5mbps. My upload is awful as well at a terrible 0.72 mbps. It used to be just over 3.0 mbps and it's something that I've definitely noticed (The drop in speed) as I'm always uploading video's to a popular video site. I really hope you guys get something changed here because this is a total joke. Go! GadgetShow! Go! :D

Gloria Villiers11 September 2010

i thought i should be getting up to 20 it seems i am getting between .83 to 1.19 this is utterly disgraceful how are they allowed to lie like this and get away with it i am at the moment with B.T but am seriously concidering moving elsewere as my contract is up in November 2010, but who do i go to and how do i find out which one is the best deal

paula11 September 2010

i was quite surprised realy we are with sky and have unlimited broadband which is up to 20mb and the test showed 12.43 which i thought werent too bad as it thought we were getting much less!

Paul11 September 2010

Left BT and went to O2 Broadband. Paying for 8Mb and have been using ZDNET and Gadget show testers. Have consistantly got 6.5 - 7Mb any time of day. Good BB service, pity the webmail is rubbish and crashes a lot if I am away from home!

sean darcy11 September 2010

virgin media 20 meg getting between 16.6 and 19.5 depending on when i test. Probably the most consistant speeds ive had over the years

Steve J11 September 2010

My adverstised speed with Virgin Media is 10Mbps and when i test it I get a huge range of results, mostly I get around 3Mbps, but I do on occasion get the full 10Mbps and sometime even 11Mbps

j parry11 September 2010

i get 9.08 from a 10mb from virgin cant complain

Keith11 September 2010

I am with Virgin Media and only have the 10Mb package but still got an average speed of 8.79 which I thought pretty good.

aaron11 September 2010

my download speed is not to bad at 5.5mb when it says upto 8mb but my upload speed is ridicolous at 0.37mb when used for gameing my connection is useless and at certain time because im fighting for bandwidth internat stops all together during the six weeks holiday i could only get online before 10am and after midnight when i phone to ask them they say its because they havent got there technology in the exchange. i hate paying for a service that doesnt work 50% of the time but because of where live im limited to what i can have.

Raymond Hughes11 September 2010

After taking various speed tests I get download speeds of 1.1 and upload speeds of 0.47. I pay for 8mb. I believe that the exscuse the ISP suppliers use that it is up to 8mb as part of their terms and conditions can only be describe as breaching advertising standards, as they have absolutley no control over the phone systems used by BT or other suppliers unless they actually own the phone system, so to indicate that any speed can be gained using these systems is completly false. I have complained to my ISP Orange and to BT who all use the same exscuse saying it is dependent on the distance from the exchange and the time of day and the amount of users on line. If this is the case these facts must be used in any advertising and any pricing. I believe that as a consumer on his own that my complaint like many others has just been ingnored. The gadget show should along with its veiwers make a joint complaint to all parties concerned including the minister in charge to stop this practice immediatly and require all suppliers to the industry to prove that speeds advertised are achievable by all consumers and not just a few, or stop advertising untill the system is in place to provide these speeds. I also believe this should be challenged in respect of the sale of goods act, as the ISPs cannott actualy supply any speeds as it is the phone companies who supply the means to connect to the internet.

Andy11 September 2010

I travel the county and stay in B&B's which have Wifi. I often test the transfer rates. Virgin in general has been good at around 5Mbps, with BT typically 2.5Mbps. There is no reason why BT should'nt be up there with the best. Come on BT get your act together.

Chris11 September 2010

Tiscali / Talk Talk. I'm on upto 8mbps & so far have only got a d/l speed of 3.95mb & an upload speed of 0.24mb. Pretty damn poor..

Vic11 September 2010

I pay Virgin Media for 50Mb cable service. Depending on what time of day I run the test the speed varies from 15Mb to 22Mb. Not 50Mb but far better than other non-cable services achieve, so I'm happy with it. Upload speed is 1.2Mb to 1.6Mb. Would be nice if upload was faster as I use online backup services, but that's the U/L speed they promise so can't grumble. I was previously on their 20Mb cable service which used to get D/L speeed of 6Mb to 13Mb. I have had tech guys around from VM, they bring their own laptop and use their own virgin media speed test site (but won't give out the URL), needless to say they get around 47-49Mb so blame my computer, I've tried 2 other PC's here, but they achieve similar results to mine. There's nothing better available as I live a long way away from the BT exchange, so overall I wouldn't change from Virgin Media Cable. Just waiting to see what BT's new Fibre network will be like, but will probably be some time coming and they may well increase the price.

Clive11 September 2010

Can't get the speed checker to work either in Explorer or Firefox....jusy get a blank screen :<(

BigW11 September 2010

Excellent speed test, very efficient. Results as expected, approx 50% SLOWER than the "up to" advertised. Just over 4mbs instead of 8mbs download speed. 0.36mbs upload. BT is my provider in Leominster, Herefordshire. Despite having no issues with them as regards backup, the download speed is very frustrating. So to is the widely published and promoted 20mbs service which is not due for operation in my area. This seems like offering a model of car that is only available in certain cities!

Neil Martin11 September 2010

Thanks for this option, However disapointed with the graph as it had no labled axis with units. Also I found your survey very bias as there were only two option columns. I pay for approx 8 Mbps and my result was 7.3 Mbps so in theory my result is what I pay for, not less or greater. Thanks and send me a gadget prefferably two ipads Cheers :-).

Nick Robson11 September 2010

I AGREE WITH WHAT NEIL MARTIN SAYS MY BROADBAND IS WHAT I PAY FOR I ALSO WANT 2 IPADS.

Eve11 September 2010

I did not vote as my advertised speed od 50mbps with Virgin was spot on. I check it often with different services as there are so many things that might affect a test. The reported speeds average 52mbps for all different times of the day. This is the only consistent contract I have ever had and is the only one that is truly unlimited and not subject to "throttling" for high users like us that we have found. There has only been 1 day with service difficulties (server down) since we started with ntl in 2001. We would not be likely to change provider as friends and family with BT, Tiscali etc are constantly having difficulties. I think Cable has the edge at the moment, and it is such a shame that many do not have the chance to use it.

ash11 September 2010

at home we had sky and virgin internet, virgin we was paying just shy of £20 per month. up to 20mb we actualy got 4.5mb + 0.6 upload sky was free also up to 20mb we actualy got 0.3mb + 0.6 upload so both are rubbish so we got rid of virgin but still this 'up to' palava needs to go!

Gspanman11 September 2010

Took the test 0.34 down load and 0.59 upload what an awful awful sloooow speed, and may i add getting sloowerrrrr. Thanks BT ,,,,,,,,for faster than a speeding snail broadband.

Ian Morrell11 September 2010

If the broadband companies wish to sell an exemplary service then they need to move away from the cop-out term 'up to'. For peolpe who have paid for a premium service the absolute least they should get is something that is a lot fast than tight fisted folk like me are happy with, 10Mb service, but only only 2.3Mb on your clock. It is a lot faster than my old dial-up service. But again for those that have paid for a premium service of say 30Mb then they should really be getting a minimum of 20Mb.

Peter11 September 2010

0.5mb on the test, pretty pathetic! Aol never made any big claims, our problem is we live in a village & the BT infrastructure is antiquated. The only reason we've got BT internet connection at all was a high profile business leader living locally complained. Ironic that BT sent us direct mail this weekend promoting their "up to" 20mb service! Anyone else got the same problem - not the ISP but BT?

Alan11 September 2010

Im with talkTalk who say that their internet connection can be up to 8Mb. I thought I was getting somewhere around 2Mb but having taken your test (and others) I am getting around 0.5 and at5 best 1Mb. This is absolutely appalling any slower and I might as well use dialup!

Steve Billett11 September 2010

4.5 down and 0.5 up, its not quite the 8meg i should be getting from Sky, and I was told I should be getting 20meg by now. The Chingford Exchange was one of the first to start giving out 20meg. I bet i will never see that speed in my life time.

Debra Taylor11 September 2010

I'm with talktalk,i was told when i joined them,That i would get 24mb.I did the test i got 1.74mb download and 45mb upload.But going with some i've just read its pretty good. Before my boyfriend did a certain thing to the master BT box we was getting 45mb download and 34mb upload. BT will sell you these magic little plates,That you put on your BT box for up to £17.00 each ,Which will speed up you internet connection.Or you can do what my boyfriend did.For free.Unsrew the top of BT master socket.Unplug phone connection.Then remove next two screws of the next plate.And you will see some wiring.Just disconnect the one wire that is in the terminal.no 3.this should leave you with two wires in 2 and 1 terminal.then put back together again then your internet should speed up.(what this does is send out a slight voltage to the old style telephone that had the old style ringer on.Most phones now don't need this voltage to ring.The plate that BT is selling you for £17.00 just isolates the wire in terminal 3 that you have just disconnected,So BT trying to make more money by getting you to buy something they know you don't need.My boyfriend is a BT engineer so he knows,Hope this helps you all to get a faster internet.please let me know if it worked

Roger Norton11 September 2010

ISP: The Phone Co-op Browser: Opera Advertised speed: up to 8Mbps Download speed (Sat 18:00): 6.44 Mbps Upload speed (Sat 18:00): 0.81 Mbps Download speed OK. Upload speed poor.

hoopoe11 September 2010

I pay for 8mb, and reasonably impressed after all the other comments, I have tried between 10am and 10pm on different days and am getting pretty consistent results of around 6.86.

somauroe11 September 2010

got a 20 meg connection and tested at 17.95 meg, its about what i expected but that wasn't an option for the poll

Paranomia11 September 2010

My experience with broadband over the years just adds to my annoyance that the rollout of an optical infrastructure was not encouraged a long time ago. I am a very lucky user, I am in a cable area; I pay for 20MB and I get almost exactly that... (worst figure of 18.65 using your speed test) and on occasion exceeding what I pay for. I have been offered 50MB but until the rest of the internet catches up, I don't really see the point. By the way, the user who sees a big difference between wireless and wired throughput should try changing to another channel or better still change to an N router.

colin clarke11 September 2010

i use aol isp, i'm paying for silver broadband which is 56kbps, i have tested broadband speed afew times and found that it's consistant at 1.14mps. upload 36 kbps.i do get days where i get very slow internet as low as 3 or 4 kbps which makes my downloading long i feel like telling them to shove it at 14.99 amonth i have seen dongles with better speeds.

Denise11 September 2010

With Sky supposedly getting "up to 20mb" just down test getting 0.14download, 0.23 upload! I know it's peak time but come on! Best we get is 4.4 when we are at work/school!!

Martin Neave11 September 2010

I have 'up to 8meg and got 4.6meg in the test. I find this acceptable as it is impossible to give maximum speed all the time. However, the test was carried out at a time when internet use was fairly low so repeated tests are still needed to give a comprehensive result.

Marsha Lawrence11 September 2010

Hiya I am annoyed with the service especially in our area. Even though we are not far north of the M25, we are deemed one of the lucky ones. Just a mile or two down the road there are households that cannot get broadband. We are not remote. . It is very frustrating to be regularily disconnected when we are in the process of completing application forms on internet for eg. There is no guarantee our submissions have been sent successfully. We are in the 21 Century, this should be a standard package within the home

David Doig11 September 2010

I can't get the broadband speed checker page to load up at all. It loads up as a blank white page and nothing more. I am using BT as my broadband provider.

Michael Snook11 September 2010

I am getting about 6mb download and 1mb upload - My Boradband is with O2 and they adviced me before I signed up to expect a typical speed of 4.5mb download and 0.8mb upload. I am pleased to be getting better results than expected. However I do agreed that the advertising is misleading and if they insist on selling as "up to", they should maybe have to advertise the typical speed too. I dont think its right to be billed for boardband services you cannot get.

Chris11 September 2010

Hi, My test was on both distance wifi and mobile broadband. Distance approx 160m non line of sight with approx 8m of building halfway to go through. Large amounts of other wifi in nearby locality offering additional interference. Orange Livebox ethernet to AP (MIMO) with one 12Db external cantenna and one 90 Deg. Internal 12Db Antenna connected to the AP. The receiving machine having an internal 12Db cantenna on its B/G card. Results 0.88 and 0.37 Not bad bearing in mind the distance, interference and obstructions. But the big shock was the advertised Up to 7.5 Mps on the mobile broadband. Results 1.34 and 0.28 despite having full reception!!!!

Richard11 September 2010

Paying for 20MB getting between 16MB and 18MB download speed so pretty pleased with this. However upload speed is slow at around 0.7MB which is disappointing.

maureen12 September 2010

my download is 1.97 and ypload is 0.37 its a lot slower than what i expecked

altaf12 September 2010

With Sky supposedly getting "up to 20mb" just down test getting 0.14download, 0.23 upload! I know it's peak time but come on! Best we get is 4.4 when we are at work

Barry12 September 2010

Pay Sky £5 a month for upto 20 meg,using a wireless router. Gadget Show speed test result 14.5meg. Upload 0.8. Tried various other speed test sites,max is about 18meg and upload about 1.3,well worth the £5 fee.

phil tooley12 September 2010

i pay for 10mb and get 9.5 cant complain about virgin at all does exactly as it says on the tin cant say the same for my mums connection with talk talk should be 10 mb and connects at 499kbs not even half a mb how bad is that

Paul12 September 2010

My ISP Sky rates my service at "up to 20mb" I rang them to see if we could improve the speed as i regularly test and never get more than 1.7mb download connection. There response is always that I am not paying for the service and the £10 fee i pay per month is for unlimited download speeds. So because its a free connection speed they will do nothing

Sarah12 September 2010

I have AoL up to 24meg download speed. As I live in South Wales, I knew I would not get that, but was shocked to find it is only 0.13 and the upload speed is only 0.05. (tested in off peak)

david rae12 September 2010

Rubbish, supposed to be getting 8 meg ..... 1 meg most of the time but on a sunday at 8 in the morning getting 3 meg still no where near what I thought I was getting.

WiReLaD12 September 2010

Best yet! - ISP Sky. Offer when signing up two months ago: Up to 20meg connection and free if I take out phone package and TV. which I did!! Eventhough SKY charge me 7 quid for un-limited downloads and assured me I'd only get 3.5mbps because of where I live. Two months into the plan - and after running the Gadget show speed test... download speed 0.85mbps and upload speed 0.5mbps. Now thats a joke! - I've spoke with Sky and their working on a fix...? What do you think I should do when they don't fix me? Thanks WiReLaD

Onejagjohn12 September 2010

I consistently get good speeds from my BT broadband despite living in deep countryside. I had the system installed by BT with a special box (no filters needed). My neighbour only gets a fraction of my speed but use another provider and uses filters etc. The answer is to get your system checked out by BT if you have poor speeds. If you do not pay a line rental to BT you are 'stuffed' as they will not want to know.

Keith12 September 2010

Am with Tiscali (Talk Talk) and pay for 8meg. I got 5,69 download and 0.37 upload off peak. Around the 3 - 4 meg and 0.2 off peak. It's fine for what I do but not the advertised rates, therefore disappointing. Just another example of the consumer rip off this country has to deal with.

Jeanette12 September 2010

I live in Bridlington on the east coast and pay for the Pro16 Package from Xilo, had nothing but problems with the connection from day one, line keeps disconnecting, they have recently dropped my line speed to increase stability and it seems to have worked to a point but the speed is less than 5mbit, your speedchecker shows 4.78 download and 0.45 upload, this is about right. Sick of all the isp's advertising speeds they cannot provide, and it is also too easy for them to blame the users modem/line. BT should get off their backsides and roll out the fibre exchanges, maybe then we will all be provided with the speeds we pay for.

Chris12 September 2010

I'm with Virgin and got 9.47 MB out of 10MB on wifi on a Sunday morning, so I'm happy with that result. I will try and test again at different times of day.

tasha12 September 2010

I am really unhappy with the broadband connection i receive. I am with Sky and it is advertised as 20mb, they told us we would get 5mb because of the line not being great but I am actually getting 0.15mb in non peak times and 0.08 in peak times....This is terrible and I don’t see why it is so different all over the country! I should be getting a discount for the rubbish connection, or they should be trying to upgrade the lines.

tonyisace12 September 2010

tiscali has been tken over by talktalk and they promise broadband speeds of up to 20mb what i actually get is 5.4mb

George Andrew12 September 2010

I was really disappointed at the result, I am on Virgin 20 meg and I am lucky to get 1.46!!!!!!!!! Not a happy teddy bear

Jeff Arris12 September 2010

From my SKY page :) You have Sky Broadband Unlimited which offers a maximum download speed of up to 20Mb Speed Estimate When you purchased Sky Broadband, we estimated that the maximum download speed for your line was: 6.4453125Mb From your tool Download I get 3.25 and Upload just 0.65 Pathetic really....

mick brighton12 September 2010

I tried your speed test on a couple of different times and days. I have to say that I got very good results every time, close to my promised 8MB most times.I am with TalkTalk and have usually had good service with them. PS (Iam not a TalkTalk employee).

Eric Lyon-Taylor12 September 2010

My Broadband was slightly slower than advertised between 5 and 6 mb download instead of the 8 advertised. But on saying that i don't pay for broadband its free with my phone package.

lee12 September 2010

plusnet in southampton. upto 20mb! your speed test shows me i'm only running at 2.2mb. when i tested my line speed it says i can only get 4mb anyway?????? promising an extra "possible" "Impossible"16mb is just wrong. not a happy bunny

Craig12 September 2010

I am with Virgin and pay for 20mb the results from the test was 16.9mb so thats not to bad i think and thats using a router.

Del12 September 2010

OK, I'm with Sky 20 mb unlimited package which means I'm paying for unlimited access to the internet and UPTO 20 mb If its available in the area. On the test I got 0.5 mb, not good. I phoned Sky who said there was a problem and talked me through reseting the router, then told me to unscrew the faceplate of the phone line (is that normal btw?) told me to put the micro-filter in the test socket behind the faceplate then told me the max speed I can is 5.3! They didn't tell me this before when I subscribed to them, apparently I'm far away from the exchange. Is this a broadband lottery now?

Ged12 September 2010

I pay for up to 20 meg and am only getting 0.35 from Sky. This is a very poor service which keeps dropping out.

Graham Collett12 September 2010

Having been with wanadoo/ freeserve/ orange for 10 years ish?? I changed to sky as they advertised their broadband service as free to those who took their talk package and suscribed to their full tv package also. Since found out not only am I outside their free of charge broadband area but I have to pay £17.99 per month for 0.94Mb/s download speed. I discussed this with them and suggested I should pay about 1/8 of the cost of the 8Mb/s service I pay for but got nowhere. I live 6 miles north of Barnstaple in North Devon not the Highlands. Live streaming is impossible as is online gaming. Hard connection or wifi seems to make little difference. I think those outside of towns and cities have a long wait for a quality broadband service. Ant suggestions would be welcome in improving this situation.

tina12 September 2010

mine is 6.31 download i expected it to be much higher than this i was expecting approx 25

Maureen Webb12 September 2010

i did the test again today and it went up a bit to 2.03 download and 0.37 upload which is still to slow for which they said i could expect at less 4.00 download

Alan Larke12 September 2010

I have ran the test and was astonished at how low my broadband speed was?...my ISP changed the service package two weeks ago after being with them 2 years and i did not expect a massive difference but my Broadband has since slowed to unbelievable levels...i could make a brew before the page changed?. I am supposed to get up to 4mb but am getting around 0.15 download & 0.26 upload speeds average....This test has given me ammunition to use against my provider to give me a better service.

scott dempsey12 September 2010

hi im paying for 20mb with virgin and now just dicovered im only getting 10mb welll 9.87 close enough but i cant run 2 thing at one like playing cod on line and kids been on laptop as my upload is caped to half meg and also i didnt know that if i use too mutch bband i get capped for 12 hours to 256kbs witch is about just over 2 mb then i lagg on games and get shot b4 i even see them help gadget show thanks dempsey p.s ill be getting in touch with virgin to see why ill be paying for 20mb and only getting 10

scott12 September 2010

ive done yr test & im appolded by my broadband speed i pay for up to 20meg but only reciving 7meg

Joe McC12 September 2010

I switched to cable due to the appalling dsl speeds on offer in Britain. (currently, UK broadband is ranked 33rd in the world, way behind Latvia and Sweden. Upload speed is 65th globally). As an internet early adopter since back in the days of steam powered modems and outrageous access fees & BT call charges, I can safely affirm that UK ISPs, (including cable), still share several things in common. 1. They are extremely unprofessional and offer derisory customer service. Very "cowboyish" in their dealings with customers. 2. They have short termist business strategies. 3. They NEVER listen to common sense - infrastructure investment lags appallingly in the UK. Once (if?) their deceitful speed claims are resolved, perhaps the next challenge should be the excessive service throttling and bandwdth management which goes on. (aka silently denying customers the quality of service they pay for by applying excessively conservative daily useage limits). Not every customer who "exceeds" these limits is illegally downloading. Nor, in these days of streaming video or online gaming is it uncommon for fairly typical users to easily reach these so-called fair use limits. Its another sly means of maximising an outdated infrastructure without investing properly. At the customer's expense of course.

Naomi12 September 2010

I am in Worthing and with Sky broadband. We are suppose to get 20meg but done the broadband test and got 9 meg. Why should everyone pay the same price if they don't get what's advertised.

Mark J12 September 2010

Much slower than expected...Perhaps companies show advertise a minimum speed people can expect rather than a maximum.

Glenn12 September 2010

I'm very lucky where I live I get virgin broadband and i get the Mbps speed that I pay for so on your poll there should be as follows Slower than expected. Faster than expected. What I expected.

Garry Macduff-Forster12 September 2010

I was asked to upgrade to another 12 month contract with the promise of an estimated 14 meg out of 20 meg speed at my home location. After 4 months there was no real increase and the best was 7.5 meg. I called bt broadband who tested the line and sent an engineer out to exchange the old telecom main socket which was apparently over 25 years old. Now i have 5.1 meg speed so the exchange has made the speed slower not faster. I am now waiting for bt to get in touch again to see what they plan to do about this

Tom G12 September 2010

I got 0.2 download and 0.11 upload speed, I wouldn't mind so much if I was paying for 1mbps broad band, but since I'm paying for up to 8 I think its a bit rubbish. If the republic of Cyprus can sell 1mbps broad band and you get only just under and 2mbps and get just under why can't the ISPs in this country do the same I'll tell you why, greed. They are overloading an old outdated system (the current BT network) and not willing to fund the cash for upgrading it. Totally disgusting. realistically if they're saying you pay £16 for 8mbps, I shouldn't be paying more than about £1 for my sub standard service.

Graham Lutz12 September 2010

We have Virgin broadband with a 20M connection, we have tested a few times and average around 10M download speed.

Martin Neave12 September 2010

This is my second test getting 5.15 meg on an 'up to 8 meg' btinternet package. This is on a home wifi system and I consider it an acceptable rate. One further trial is needed at peak usage time during the working week to see if speed is adversely affected.

Rich Adkins12 September 2010

Just tried the speed test go a lousy 0.09 ! I think the phrase 'Upto' should be banned. I cannot believe that a previous post was asked not to use the net a peak times. It is a shame that thISP's do not ahve an address to visit and complain, instead they only offer the telephone or the net to remain distant from the 'valued' customers they are misleading in what can only be called a scam!

Chris12 September 2010

on virgin paying for 20mb and getting 18mb not that bad, pretty close really. the missing 2mb could be down to having several tabs open.

Paul Tasker12 September 2010

I'm supposed to get 20MB/sec but in practice I'm getting 16-18 when the router is connected by a wire. I think this is pretty decent. However use wifi via any device and its down to just 10MB/sec. In the same room as the router via laptop. With desktop in other room its 5-10 depending on signal strength. Thats half the initial connection speed. So wifi may be part of the problem as another user has posted. Interesting in another place I get 1.5MB/s wifi and 1.5MB/sec wired, so wifi is probably not such a problem until you're into the quicker speeds. I'm using the standard o2 router. Could a better router improve my wireless speeds?

Paul Tasker12 September 2010

Seems that the fault is the BT phone line. Virgin which uses cable and doesn't use ADSL/ADSL2+ appears to provide users with what they pay for. Any provider which uses BT phone line for connection seems much slower. WIFI is another factor. Using wireless drops my up to 20MB o2 connection from 16 to just 11. This test on the other hand only shows 9. Speedtest.net is 11-12 depending on time. From these comments, cable seems to be the way to go if you want rapid broadband. I'm fairly pleased with my o2 package which seems to offer a decent speed for not much money and a download speed of 10MB/s is more than enough for everything I need the net for. Would be interested to know if a better router would help my wireless speed though.

Paul Tasker12 September 2010

This campaign might as well be an advertisement for virgin media. So many people getting the expected speed or 0.5 off which is excellent. The phone line for everyone else is definitely a big factor but since my provider has up to 8 and up to 20 services it can't be the only one. The ISP must limit the service a little. Has anyone got more than 12MB/sec connected wirelessly? If you're getting 10 and expecting 20 this is a big factor, as I can reach 18 with a wire plugged into the PC. The price you pay for convenience I guess.

Kat12 September 2010

Hi I am disgusted that I am only receiving less than 1meg when I am paying for 8 meg. I am with Talk Talk

Carl12 September 2010

I have ran this test a few times during peak and off peak times and am not happy with my provider (Virgin) at all. I pay for 20 mb speed but during off peak times i recieve around 10 mb and during peak times i recieve a pitiful 0.5 mb. granted this is through a router but if any other companies in different sectors used false advertising like this they'd be stopped straight away by OFCOM.

Jamie Patel12 September 2010

Dear John My isp keeps telling me that my broadband connection will improve in time. i just took your test and got .38 download speed. What can i do with that. i want to update my ipod touch firmware and it will take me 4 hours. i keep phoning my isp (Bt) and they say theres abssolutly nothing they can do about it. i also spotted that some people down my street have fibre optic connections so why is it not avalible to me honestly i am sick of me connection and would love help to increse my connection from this inhumane 0.38 connection

Woodsy12 September 2010

Just completed broadband speed test after speaking to my supplier about my speeds being too slow. They told me they would complete a "dynamic line management configeration" on my phone line which should help. Is that something they can really do or is a euphamism for thanks for your money, you will just have to put the kettle on and wait. Should be getting 20Mb download speed and actually getting 0.5 Mb.

Stephen Longley12 September 2010

As expected, due to the length of our BT line from the exchange, our maximum download speed was 0.5mbps, and our download 0.35mbps. What I find so annoying about receiving such a slow connection is not that our connection is so slow ( we expect it given our long line), but that we have to pay the same amount of money as someone getting the full 20mbps. I understand that we need the same equipment to be used by our ISP in order to get our broadband, but our throughput is much less. I would much prefer a system where you paid the percentage of the monthly charge that your download is of the amount advertised. For example if you get 10mbps, but pay for an up to 20mbps, then I think it only fair that you only pay half the monthly charge. Due to being out in the sticks I can't wait for the upgrade to 21CN on our exchange, but even then I can only expect 1mbps at most, still barely enough for gaming or youtube etc. I am rapidly being left in the digital stoneage and will need to consider moving just because of our slow broadband provision. I cannot see how the government can achieve its goal of 2mbps minimum speeds for all with the current infrastructure. BT and/or Virgin will not pay for optic cable to my village. Less than 100 people live here so the cost of laying the cable with current uptake in the village would take years to repay - it won't happen.

Stuart Barker (Ronnie)12 September 2010

I am with BT its say up to 20Mbps. but my Download speed was 5. 47Mbps. BT did say it would be around this speed what i was shocked with was the up load speed at only 0.35Mbps. By the way love the the show followed it for years.

Elliot12 September 2010

I think that the speed tester on this site is inaccurate. I get much better results using speedtest.net. Using the gadget shows one I get around 5mbps less for download and a few kbps less for upload than speedtest.net. I feel that speedtest.net is a much more reliable way of testing your internet speed, as it allows you to choose the closest server to you, so you can check your internet speed. I cannot see how the gadget show feels they can collect results of UK actual Internet speed when their means of testing is woefully inaccurate!

Jeff Chartrand12 September 2010

Hi, I am on Virgin Media via cable and have a 10 Meg service. The download tests are all very good ~9.6 meg tested at a number of times. My loading of pages and such is not good due to the Upload speed of 0.12 Meg. It is not just the download speed you need to worry about as most web browsers and applications up and download. For me slow performance is because of the poor upload speed. Please bring this second reading to the fore for discussion!!! Thanks... Jeff

Gloria Villiers12 September 2010

i am with B.T and i was told i would get up to 20mpbs i have tried this test over two days and am very shocked by my readings at 12 Noon on Saturday 11/09 i got a download speed of 0.84 and an upload of 0.33 at 9.00pm that night i got download of 0.94 and upload of 0.37 at 7.00pm on Sunday 12/09 i got download of 0.92 and upload of 0.36 at 11.30 pm i got download of 1.16 and upload of 0.36 this is disgusting they are taking money under false pretences b.t would not let me lie about my phone bill, we should get what we are promised and what we pay for or as near as possible it's legalized theft

Nev12 September 2010

With BE and very happy with their service. Although connected VIA ADSL2+, my download speeds are 20Mb Down, 1.5M Up. BE sells services as UP TO 24Mb available, but happy with what I'm getting.

Roger13 September 2010

Using Virginmedia (cable) supposedly 20 Mb, getting just over 19 Mb - so pretty good. Judging by the comments here, if you can get Virginmedia cable in your area, this seems to be by far the best option for 'getting what you pay for'.

steve13 September 2010

im with virgin media in merseyside and i didnt expect the speed that the results showed up, ive got to say i have very few problems with virgin media and the internet speed is actually more than advertised if only by a few kb/s. I would recommend virgin media to everyone i know and cannot fault them at all, plus on the very rare occasion i do have a problem their freephone support team is very useful and 100% of the time finds a quick and easy resolution to the fault. Top marks

Louis Nicholson13 September 2010

i cant believe how slow it is... it just shows you that you cant trust even the most successful providers like sky.. what can i do to go about this?

Steve13 September 2010

download 6.51 upload 1.03mbs, 00.43am, west yorkshire. O2 Broadband, 8mb. seems a bit rubbish to me

Zac Connelly 13 September 2010

i was shocked as well i use usb internet and my upload speed was 0.3 and my downlaod was 2.4 u should test what is the best usb internet device :)

Can13 September 2010

I'm with Talk Talk ' 8Mb Broadband ' and have never received over 4Mb. This company is really poor. I recommend nobody to switch to talk talk. I used to be able to use p2p sharing but this has been blocked because it apparently slows down their network. I also requested a new modem but they told me it costs £30. So when I decide to leave Talk Talk, all of a sudden they try sending me a new modem for free. ????? Are these people serious?

Dominique13 September 2010

I think we've got the 20mb on virgin broadband and I'm getting 15.36mbps downloading and 0.69mbps for uploading :\

adam13 September 2010

i got 6.5 meg (on an 8meg contract) i'm only about 1/4 mile from the exchange and i've bee3n told this affects it. if this test is acurate i think i'll go with virgin to try the 20 meg package (i use my pc mainly for gaming). thanks gadget show for the test!

Dave Clark13 September 2010

My ISP is pretty damn good. I have a 20meg connection speed with Virgin Media. When Virgin are not throttling off peak times I roughly get 19meg but at peak tiimes it varies from 9 to 12meg. But I`m happy with that. Fibre optic is miles better than ADSL.

Richard13 September 2010

I always got around 3 – 3.5mb with my previous provider and that was for a couple of years. I change to another provider on an up to 20mb option, I only moved as they were cheaper. I knew I would not get that due to the distance to the exchange as I am on ADSL. In their defence they did say I could only get around 1.5mb. So I cannot complain about them, as they did advise me I would not be able to get the advertised speed of 20mb.

Dave Clark13 September 2010

I forgot to mention that this is wireless using Virgins new Home Hub (thats a modem and router combined)

ubergam3r13 September 2010

I have found that the main problem is with the terminology most of the ISP's as on most of their websites they use Mb, which stands for Megabits not MB (big b) mega bytes. They also sometimes use slang like 'Meg' and the ultimate get out of jail free card 'up to'. This is where the confusion is, for example bt broadbands website uses Mb and states up to 20Mb, which is 2.5MB as there are 8 bits to a byte. I think ISPs should be made to use the same standard terminology.

Sam 13 September 2010

This is rubbish am with sky and thay say upto 8 Mbps and am only getting 0.99 Mbps for downloading and 0.5 Mbps for uploading the Companys advertising this upto 8 Mpbs should be ashamed but then again all thay want is money greedy people thats all i have to say

trisha13 September 2010

It's 1am and I'm getting 0.9mbps. Not much traffic to blame the poor speed on. I'm with AOL and should be getting 10mbps. What a con! I'll be contacting them in the morning but what can they do about it?....lower the price.....pigs might fly!!!

terrorfirma13 September 2010

I am with Sky and according to them my package gives me upto 20meg. Obviously I don't get anywhere near that, 5.5meg is closer. When I checked my speed on www.speedtest.net I looked at some results for the rest of Europe and was shocked to see that countries like Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria and Romania can achieve higher download speeds than here in the UK. I think its about time some money was spent on the telephone network so that, as far as broadband is concerned, we can get what we are paying for.

craig13 September 2010

hi, just done the test, mine doesnt appear to be too bad on downloads, but the upload!! well thats pretty bad:- time tested:- "00:50" (12:50am) DOWNLOAD = "4.57" mbps. UPLOAD = "0.36" mbps. I am with A.O.L. and suppose to be getting around 8meg off-peak, i have done checks during peak-times before and found an average of down = "4.26" mbps and Uplo = "0.32" mbps, so i believe its not too much of a difference, although its not what i should be getting, but i have been told that my "NETGEAR" router may need upgrading, but according to AOL this router is an updated one, so is this the case or is AOL pulling the wool over my eyes? I have used BT's TOTAL BROADBAND with the "NANNO" updated bt home hub #2 before, and found that it was the best at the time, as the home hub is supposed to get you around "8meg" off-peak, but i did find it to be around "5.5-to-6 megs" so if i was to advise anyone, i would recommend the "BT-HomeHub 2.0", so now you ask why im with A.O.L.! the answer is simple, i get free calls to landlines and a very low rate to mobiles (not that i phone them off my landline) and it is cheaper than "BT's" broadband, and admittedly i still have to pay bt line rental fee's, but A.O.L is still cheaper than bt in the long run!! Thanks for reading, i will test my connection in mid peak time and see if it differs from my checks in the past, and report my findings to this blog! craig!!

jenny13 September 2010

Interesting!!! :( i didnt realise it was that slow!!! supposed to have upto 8meg, my results showed 0.76 Download speed and 0.34 upload speed. very poor & not really that much difference to PC speeds of 10 years ago!!! why do i feel conned????????????

Alan13 September 2010

On 02 via BT line, upto 8mb. 5mb down most of the time dropping to 3mb at busy times. Upload is always around 0,92 at all times!

Peter13 September 2010

The main issue with broaband speeds can be divided between: A) the 'line speed' between the exchange and the consumer's house and router, and then on to the computer(s) limiting factors include: i) for standard telephone copper lines, as opposed to fibre optic lines common with cable opertators, line distance is a hugh factor. Most ISPs have access to data, and use this data, to indicate potential line speeds. ii) electromagnetic (EMF) interferance affecting the signals on the lines. Busy lines affect other people lines, so at busy times interferance between lines (called crosstalk) increases and effectively slows the rate at which the lines can work. iii) different routers have different capabilities iv) using a wire connection (using ethernet) between the router and the computer genreally faster (as well as more secure) than using a wifi connection. The wifi signals get congested with so many people using wifi connections. B) the backend network speeds which are no way fast enough to support the potential of the lines speeds. This is because network bandwidth costs money. Even with the much wider use of the cheaper ethernet based backend technology, overall there's not enough internet network bandwidth capacity. For ISPs to provide the necessary bandwidth to support even the potential capabilities of consumers' lines speeds and demands would require significant increases in costs. c) The same network issues apply to the internet as a whole. Not enough bandwidth available. So, most people will not ever get the 'suggested potential' lines speeds. Those 'up to' speeds always relate to the potential LINE speed, and not the 'internet experience'. It's a marketing thing, and a bit of a cover up. Always has been. In this campaign, the ISPs should be open about what typical rates they can supply from the backend, which by comparison, are significantly lower than most people would imagine. Network capacity management tools are used to throttle the network connections accoring to varying demand, to preserve some sort of usable service to the enduser consumers whilst using the scare network resources. Other factors like the varying performance of the PCs and their applications, the proliferation of devices that now use the consumer internet connections - multiple PCs, gaming systems, satellite bxes/on-demand TV content, which consume the limited bandwidth made available to that 'broadband line', can account for much of the perceived degradation of internet speeds. There needs to be a practical, common measure of line 'speed' that ISPs can realistically give to consumers. The current 'up to' line speeds quoted by a lot of ISPs relate only to the theoretical speeds achievable by the techonology - for example 22Mbps for ADSL2+ technology as opposed to the eatlier ADSL 8Mbps. Individual line estimates, based on historic technical data previously captured, that take ino account factors such as distance from the exchange can be and often are made evailable, but its not until a line is connected to the systems that a realistic speed estimate is establsihed. Most ISPs use these 'real' estimates to profile a specific line for stable service. So the current yardstick 'up to' figures being made available to consumers are poor and misleading. However, when consumers use the commonly available 'line checkers' a more relaistic LINE speed estaimte can be given. But they do not take ino acount backend network capacity, or the possible type of use a consumer might make of their broadband connection. What is lacking is what the ISP will provide by way of backend network speed to support the potential for any given line. This is what needs to be made more widely known. Some ISPs have good supporting networks. Some are poor. Third party testing of these networks, with the information being made available to potential consumers, would help more informed choices to be made, and perhaps promote the improvement of those networks. Consumers also need to be better educated about such matters so that they can ask more demanding questions of ISPs before they make there choice.

Michael13 September 2010

I was actually quite surprised by the results. My ISP is Virgin Media and I pay for a 10mbps service. The results came back as 9.4mbps download speed. This was at 1 oclock in the morning. I tried during peak time and it came back as 8.4mbps download speed. However, the upload speed even at one in the morning was a measly 0.47mbps - yes, nought point four seven.

stu13 September 2010

due to the number 3 wire from the master B.T.point in the internal wiring my 8meg connection was getting a reported connection speed of 3.5meg from my router and actual download speed of 3meg i removed all internal telephone wiring and connected my router to the main incoming telephone point "not always practical in many homes because of location, sky ect" and my speeds doubled to a reported router connection speed of 7.3 and an actual download speed of just under 5.8meg on this particular test. although my download speed has hit just under 6.8 and the shortfall from the router is whats known as adsl overhead although this is not quite the reported speed it is reasonably close thank you "talk talk for once" but i think the isps should be line testing the speeds to the homes then giving the right packages to there clients.another previous problem i had is rain getting into B.T.'s external equipment crippling my connection so if you get significant speed drops every time it rains this is a possible cause

Mike13 September 2010

Why does your test show 3Mb download when broadbandchecker.co.uk shows 18Mb???

kalniel13 September 2010

It's all well and good to test broadband speeds, but to throw any credibility out of the window with such awful poll choices means this campaign is going to do more harm than good. Where is the option for 'I get the speed I expected'? Of course most of us aren't going to get a higher speed than expected as the upper limit is far more easily controlled by providers. So on my 8mbps connection I can't get more than 8mbps! However I do get what I expect to get, not slower!

Beverley Black13 September 2010

On the advice of a friend I purchased 8mbps broadband from O2. They tried hard to sell me 20mbps as it was available in my area. Ny friend said I don't need it. So I stuck to my guns and bought 8mbps. Just done your test and I can only 6.69mbps just as well I didn't buy the more expensive package which I wouldn't have been able to use!! Thanks for this very useful test.

g watt13 September 2010

iam paying for "up to" 20mb when iam only getting 12 done the test a 7 in the morning so traffic should be light dread to do it at 5 oclock at peak time might as well just pay for the 10mb done the test lots of times and 12mb has been the best speed i have recieved

Shaun Hudson13 September 2010

Well im quite happy with ours (admitedly its 11am) but we pay for 50mb from virgin and we are getting 48 ish, not too bad really, i hope after reading some of the comments from other people who have posted on here thought that the BB service providers (and our government) take note!

Neil Redley13 September 2010

Our Broadband speed is very poor. We are 3,000 yards from the exchange who claim to be able to deliver 3+Mgbt. We get 0.54 Download and 0.46 upload. We have gone through all the Contact TalkTalk proceedures. They claim to have put a booster on our system but it's made no difference.

D Watson13 September 2010

Where is the "as expected" button?

kimmykins200813 September 2010

Have just done the test and was slightly suprised to be receiving slightly more than I thought at 1.7meg download, however this does not stop sky constantly trying to sell me unlimited up to 20 meg download even though they told me when I joined them the most my phone line could take was 1.5meg!

P.A.DUNNE13 September 2010

0.67 and 0.37, as expected 5 miles from the exchange in a rural area in North Northumberland, and no likelihood of any improvement!

John B13 September 2010

Sky internet = total waste of time for me. I contacted sky to get TV, Broadband and Phone in my new house. 2 weeks after the order, they tell me they can't go through with my phone line or broadband order (this was after the TV was installed). Since then I have got Virgin Internet (very good 10mb - as expected!) but Sky have now activated the phone line when they said they couldn't! Either way I'm sure with sky's "up to 20mb" I would only get around 14 like everyone else in big cities.... Virgin guarantee 10mb for 10mb customers. Thumbs up!

John B13 September 2010

Sky internet = total waste of time for me. I contacted sky to get TV, Broadband and Phone in my new house. 2 weeks after the order, they tell me they can't go through with my phone line or broadband order (this was after the TV was installed). Since then I have got Virgin Internet (very good 10mb - as expected!) but Sky have now activated the phone line when they said they couldn't! Either way I'm sure with sky's "up to 20mb" I would only get around 14 like everyone else in big cities.... Virgin guarantee 10mb for 10mb customers. Thumbs up!

Steven13 September 2010

I have 10Mb Virgin media and it is running through a Wifi but with no other device connected right now. The speed test done at 12pm midday was hovering between 9.65mbps and 9.80mbps, upload speed was less than 1Mb. It has always puzzled me why when you look at your connection on your P.c it shows 100mbps always and never the actual speed. I am in the Wigan area btw :-)

Ospervat13 September 2010

Time 12.15pm - ISP is BT - 0.47mbps download and 0.37mbps upload. Pathetic & disgraceful.

Jaysh713 September 2010

Just finished a series of tests on my broadband speed. I've tested at different times of the day and different days of the week. I'm really surprised and disappointed. The highest reading I got was 3.11Mbps with the lowest at 0.47Mbps. So much for Virgin's UPTO 20Mbps.

Mike13 September 2010

Can you address the upload speed and why it is below a meg

Dave13 September 2010

I am about 1km from our local BT exchange. I normally get 6.5MBPS download and 0.3 upload. I hav a brill deal from Tiscali (TalkTalk) with the complete telephone/broadband package at less than it should be (including line rental). I dont want to rock the boat on charges for sure. But I am upto 8mbps.

wayne13 September 2010

I'm on AOL up to 24 meg and I'm shocked at only getting 5 meg sometimes lower at different parts of the day we are being ripped off!!! time to fight back!!!!

Gary13 September 2010

Im with the virgin 'up to 20mg' service. I avereage about 5mg! Not as bad as some of the comments i have seen left on this blog but still nowhere near what i was expecting. I used to be on a 8mg service with aol and only got 4mg so havnt improved much with the virgin broadband.

Gary13 September 2010

Im with the virgin 'up to 20mg' service. I avereage about 5mg! Not as bad as some of the comments i have seen left on this blog but still nowhere near what i was expecting. I used to be on a 8mg service with aol and only got 4mg so havnt improved much with the virgin broadband.

Pete13 September 2010

Advertised speed 20mb, actual speed average 1.43mb... gutted! i'll be changing to another supplier i think as Talk Talk are no help in the matter!

clive Pocock13 September 2010

Done the test and lo and behold BT have under excelled themselvesYet Again!.The down load did not even get into single figures ----0.45 and 0.3 repeated the tests same figures again. so if the people out there are fed up with the slow performance as I am, is it not the time for the main suppliers of the back bone of the systems eg the cable installers and exchange service providers to make them work faster and more reliable as they are certainly charging more than enough for the appalling service of which the british public are getting at present! yours a very disgruntled customer of BT!

MICHAEL MCARDLE13 September 2010

im paying for up to 20mb i asked the sky advisor what speeds my area supports an was advised it would be more than 10mb i was happy till i got it installed turned out my area only supports up to 3.5mb an on a sky letter it says i was advised of my areas speed before purchasing lies called sky threatened with ofcom how many others have they done that to though

rwb13 September 2010

Thanks for this test. It confirms what I've found from other test. We used to have a contract with ntlworld.com, and we almost always had about 9.8 Mbps from our 10 Mbps connection. Virgin Media took over the service, and connection quality immediately fell to about 6 Mbps. Since then it has steadily deteriorated. We did get full seed earlier this year for about 2 hours, immediately after a several hour long service dropout. Today we are getting just below 2 Mbps, which is about normal for mid-afternoon. Our best speed is nudging 6 Mbps at about 5 A.M. - a time when I don't want to be awake! Our complaints about the dreadful service are simply ignored by Virgin Media. And why are they afraid to provide us with proper contact information for out complaints? One guess: they don't want people to have a proper route for complaints. In that way, they can say that 'Very few people are complaining to us about our products.' We feel robbed by this atrocious level of service. The phrase 'up to [x] Mbps' is not only a cop-out; it's misleading advertising, and therefore a crime. Our ISP is also providing a 'service' which is not fit for purpose - we want to watch streaming video - and that, surely, is another crime.

matk13 September 2010

well I must say that I had 5.71mbps which is ok as my excpeted top speed is 6mb. from talktalk

Mike13 September 2010

I'm paying for upto 20mb, I actually get 0.46mbps. Up until about 3 months ago i was getting 5mbps solid for years, never any problems, then all of a sudden my connection started spiking between 50kbps and 500kbps, this would happen when I restarted the router so I called orange tech support (orange provided my broadband at the time) for 3 solid months of phone call after phone call repeating myself hundreds of times, they couldn't understand why or where the problem was. So this led me to look for another supplier, line tests showed 5mbps, so I called o2, they said and i quote "we can guarantee you a minimum speed of 4mbps sir" so I placed an order, got my migration code from orange and switiched. As soon as the switch took place, I was not getting anywhere near 4mbps, infact I couldnt even touch half a mbps, so again I ring tech support, they tell me its a 10 day break in period where the speeds would fluctuate, give it 10 days and it will settle. I am now tied into a 12 month contract, at speeds of 0.46mbps, both my girlfriend and I are just about to begin our Masters in Graphic Design (motion graphics) and now even simple text based websites like wikki or even google news takes an age to load, eveything tiny job has become a chore, and i can't even begin to think about watching any streaming video, so our Universities online resource center is out of the question. This problem is going to dramatically effect both our investments into our education, and to make the matter worse and rub salt in my wounds, when I call up o2 and ask why i was misled into a contract they say "we would never guarantee speeds" effectively calling me a liar. at £22.50 a month (plus line rental purely for internet, don't need the phone) this is unacceptable and makes angry every time I open my internet browser, knowing everything will take hours instead of minutes. Oh and shortly after placing this order with o2, the offered 3 months free, so I called them asking why I didnt get 3 months free, they said sorry and it had been applied to my account, a few days later they withdraw 22.50 from my bank, I phone them explain the situation, they tell me they will call back in 5 days, 2 weeks passes so i phone them.. explain the situation again, then im told whoever offered me 3 months free was wrong, so it's not on my account, anything else I can help you with?... ahhh it gets me so wound up, my phone is faster on 3g when im sat on a beach than my home broadband.. how is this possible =[ i really hope your successful in your challenge to stop these crooks.. the fact is, the (all of a sudden occurring) problem as small as it may sound to some people, is dramatically going to affect our lives and education as designers, over this next year.

Pete DRAPER13 September 2010

AOL advised me to expect greater than 5 meg. Before 0900hrs I was getting 5.7, in the late afternoon 0.55! and during the evening 1.5 meg. Really quite dire.

lucy veni20 September 2010

i must say that i am disgusted by the speed test results, and i have actually got an ongoing issue with my service provider (talk talk) at the moment as i should be getting "up to" 24meg. but for the last week doing tests at 10 am, 2pm, 6pm, and 9pm, i flatuate between 3.36mbps and 4.49mbps download and 0.11mbps and 0.56mbps upload. and to make matters worse. i pay for the extra speed.

Brian H Wright23 September 2010

I must be one of the lucky ones. I am with talktalk and average 15 megs and have just checked out at 44.7 I find their service very good and for £23 a month have unlimited telephone calls home and abroad plus line rental included.

Ron 22 November 2010

I am a a Tiscali customer (now TalkTalk) and until 5 weeks ago I was getting between 5-6 mbps when the speeds dropped . Currently my worst is 76kbps (yes 76 kbps) and best 215 kbps during the hours of 0900 - 00.00 so pretty unusable. When I complained to Talktalk via their online system I was asked to perform various tests and check my setup. I am an IT Consultant of some 30 years standing and hadn't changed anything but did as they asked and sent them the results. Then ensued a process by everytime I communicated with them they requested I perform the same test/checks again and again and again. Eventually i used the dreaded phone helpline in which you spend more time pressing your keypad than talking to a human being. I was assured thata technical engineer would phone me yesterday at 1300, he eventually phoned at 15:15 . He agreed that my setup was ok and then said that they had been experiencing congestion problems with thousands of customers,and that I had been lucky to have missed this until now. He said he could not give me a date when this would be resolved (not even a ballpark) I don't consider my self lucky and if TalkTalk havea congestion problem that results in an usable service for theiir current customers then they should stop taking on new customers until it is resolved.Unfortunately, I don't really want to lose my email address but I find it totally unacceptable that there is (apart from cancelling your contract) very little you can do. Ofcoms proposal at present is a voluntary agreement and we all know that voluntary agreements don't work viz; FSA and Banks. What we need is a petition to force Ofcom's hand to make new legal regulations in respect to advertised speeds and penalties for ISPs that break them. How about it Gadget Show . I'm sure you'd get millions signing it!

Simon30 November 2010

Just wanted to update on my previous post... With Tiscali when I moved two years ago was 7.1Mbit it dropped to 6 and I rang them to chack and they said it is all the line could handle... Lying Scum. I am now with BT and my package is advertised at 15Mbit and I am now getting over 14Mbit on the same line as Tiscali.. And it is cheaper too... So pleased to have changed supplier..

qwerty01 December 2010

I think this campaign is slightly silly. If you are on a telephone cable connection it is not possible to give people 20mbps if they live 5 miles from a telephone exchange. The fact of the matter is, someone who lives next to the telephone can, and will get the full advertised speed, or as close to it as possible. If you dont live close to a telephone exchange then it isnt really their fault...their service is still UP TO 20mbps. If you pay for fibre optic, then it should be the full advertised speed. But this is more expensive. As with all things you get what you pay for.

Fred Jones31 December 2010

I agree with 'qwerty' to be meaningful you need to know the sync (real line connection) speed. I mean an 'up to' 20M ADSL service depends on a few factors including how close you live to the exchange. If you are right near it you will get a near 20M connection, if you are a long way away it could be as low as 9 or 10M (or maybe lower). Theres nothing the ISP can do about it with the available wire technology at the moment. Now the Sync speed is the best you can get, so if you have a 10M sync and the throughput result gives you 9M then you are doing quite well. But if you have a 10M sync and you only get 2M throughput, then the ISP (or something) is not performing as expected, and maybe congested. So: 1 - You need the sync speed to make a meaningful comparison, maybe as well include the 'up to' figure, but the sync is important. Else move house to be closer to the exchange. 2 - Someone else said, you need an 'about right/about what I expected' option in your survey.

Mr Ali25 February 2011

I've recen tly joined talk talk im on the higher package called talk talk plus but that hasnt made a difference in my internet speed, my line maxes out at around 5 to 6mb no where near their 24mb mark. I was told that is the maximum speed in my area???? Personally, I believe most of these internet providers are conning us.... And they need to be sorted out!!!!

Lies, damn lies and broadband26 April 2011

I have ran numerous speed tests and the highest I can achieve is 1.7mb....on a 20mb contract. Sky even sent us a £10 Marks & Spencer voucher to say sorry for the slow speed and that it has been sorted now. Shock of shocks that the speed test continues to show the exact same speed since they have "fixed" the problem. I even checked the area I am in and 1 person has speed results of 14mb which I think would have been acceptable for the 20mb they were offering, however 1.7 is just too low and makes it false advertisement in my humble opinion!

seetthearve27 June 2011

It is remarkable, it is rather valuable information

Steve from the Leasowe03 July 2011

Hi, my internet is painfully slow but this is caused by the fact that I live so far from the exchange in Wallasey. I even wrote a letter to my MP who wrote to BT Openreach who manage the exchanges, but all she was able to find out was that there is some ambiguous plan to update the exchange, sometime in the future whenever. I really feel that this country lags behind others for so many things. When oh when will Britain drag itself in to the 21st Century.

rommonoacucky10 September 2011

Tell me i'm a good person :) my favorite set of numbers 187209458340011

rob21 November 2011

I am with sky, its now 8.43 pm and my speed has dropped to 0.65 mb. and they suggest this is normal. 2 days ago it was 0.13 mb. according to Sky's figures, the speed from BT exchange to my router is over 4 mb, so I have lost over 3 mb somewhere.

Arran03 December 2011

Dont know whats with this speed test could get over 5mbps where as on speedtest.net I always get over 6mbps to a max of just under 10mbps tethering my phone