USA - Average broadband download speeds are only half those advertised

[tmcnet] That lightning-fast Internet hookup may not be faster than a coyote on rocket-powered roller skates after all.

In fact, according to a Federal Communications Commission report, actual download speeds for the average consumer are only about half as fast as advertised.

The study, "Broadband Performance," indicates that in 2009, the average and median advertised download speeds for home users were 7 Mbps to 8 Mbps, while the average and median actual speeds that consumers received from their service providers were approximately 3 Mbps to 4 Mbps.

For example, dominant local carrier Time Warner Cable has a standard download speed "of up to 10 Mbps" on its Road Runner service, although the company notes on its website: "actual speeds may vary." If the service is working at 10 Mbps, it would take about 12 minutes to completely download George Clooney's latest movie, The American, according to industry statistics. But if for some reason that speed has slowed to a crawl, the complete download time could double.


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Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO West, October 4-6, 2010. Los Angeles, CA.
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO West, October 4-6, 2010. Los Angeles, CA.
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO West, October 4-6, 2010. Los Angeles, CA.
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO West, October 4-6, 2010. Los Angeles, CA.
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO West, October 4-6, 2010. Los Angeles, CA.
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO West, October 4-6, 2010. Los Angeles, CA.
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO West, October 4-6, 2010. Los Angeles, CA.

The FCC report cited the difference between actual and advertised speed as cause for concern. But the finding is hardly surprising and probably not as worrisome as the FCC and some critics say, said Lee Ratliff, senior analyst for broadband at marketing research firm iSuppli, based in El Segundo, Calif.

"In my experience, there are not too many service providers who hit their advertised rate on a regular basis," Ratliff said.

The reason: "Most service providers don't have full control over every aspect," he said. "Honestly, it's really impossible for them to guarantee a rate." In fact, the FCC and service providers will note that many variables affect download speed, including the performance of users' home computers and their home Wi-Fi setup, website traffic and the Internet itself.

"You're sharing bandwidth with everyone in your neighborhood," Ratliff said. "So if everyone starts downloading a movie at once, you're going to be sharing bandwidth with every other subscriber, and it will be a lot slower." The availability and speed of broadband has been a source of controversy for years, with critics fretting that the United States has fallen behind such countries as Sweden, Japan and South Korea in making ultrafast online service universally available.

But lost in the hubbub is the fact that most consumers don't know -- and don't care about -- the speed of their home Internet.

"In our surveys, we often find that customers don't know what their download speeds are," said Chris Pugh, a spokesman for the nonprofit group Connect Ohio. The organization's website features an interactive map that shows broadband adoption but doesn't include download speed.

Nationally, an FCC study released in June showed that "four out of five home broadband users say they do not know the speed of their home Internet connection." Even people who follow technology don't keep track of what their own services are giving them, said Paul Rodriguez, who writes a blog for the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, based in Washington.

"I don't really need to know the speed I'm getting," Rodriguez wrote recently. "What I'm interested in is whether I'm having a satisfactory experience. Are web pages loading? Is my streaming video buffering too much?" Most people are OK with the service they're getting. The FCC found in its broadband study that 91 percent of home broadband users were at least somewhat satisfied with the speed of their service, with 50 percent saying they are very satisfied.

But there's a drive to increase U.S. broadband speeds, and for good reason.

The increasingly popular application of online video watching, for example, "may considerably increase demands on broadband networks," the FCC report said. And given what's happened in the past, Internet use is expected to increase, the FCC said.

Since 1994, the report notes that the average number of hours each person spends online has increased at a 25 percent compound annual growth rate -- and the increase in hours spent online has corresponded to the increased speed of the residential connection.

To address the need for speed, cable companies have been aggressively improving their services, with most companies in some stage of upgrading to DOCSIS 3.0 -- the third iteration of Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification -- that allows for speeds as fast as 50 Mbps or even 100 Mbps. Time Warner Cable has been rolling out the service in some parts of Ohio during the past year and is scheduled to unveil it locally in phases beginning in the fourth quarter.

But the increased demand for bandwidth might not ratchet up quite as quickly as many expect, Ratliff said.

"Video is taking up lot of bandwidth, but what comes after that?" he said. "There's nothing on the horizon that will take an order of magnitude more. Some point to 3-D (video), but that's not going to require a lot more bandwidth." Meanwhile, for those who are curious to find out the speed of their Internet connection, the FCC recently launched a free broadband speed test at www.

broadband.gov. The test shows how fast a connection uploads and downloads data and whether the speed matches that promised by an Internet service provider.

Another site, Speedtest.net, owned and operated by Ookla, allows users to test their Internet connection and review the top bandwidth speed by country.

Broadband not all that speedy, FCC study shows