BT says a report published by Ofcom into fixed-line broadband speeds among a range of internet service providers (ISPs) in the UK is “sadly out of date”.
BT consumer managing director John Petter said: “We have already begun moving customers across to our 21st century network which gives them massively faster speeds, even at peak times.
“In addition, we are making exciting progress in our trial for fibre to the cabinet – which will offer speeds far in excess of what Virgin media offers most of its customers today.”
He said BT also had concerns with the methodology of the study. The telecoms regulator says fewer than one in 10 of its sample of 8Mb/s headline packages received actual average speeds of over 6Mbit/s, while around one in five received, on average, less than 2Mbit/s.
“Ofcom’s report does not take into account how networks are laid out between exchanges and premises; penalises BT for providing broadband in areas that other ISPs avoid; is based on a tiny sample; and is at odds with independent research,” John said.
As many people as possible
He added: “BT Retail provides broadband to customers all over the UK in both urban and rural areas; many other ISPs do not or cannot do this.
“This means we have many customers who are a long way from the exchange and whose lines are at the limit of broadband service, with resulting lower average speeds. We provide as many people as possible with broadband at whatever speeds can be provided in difficult situations.”
He added: “Ofcom says that it has taken account of distance from exchanges ‘as the crow flies’. However, lines from exchanges do not run directly from exchanges to premises. They travel via connection points, making the actual length of lines much longer.
“This, coupled with a sample size of only 2,200, makes the report unrepresentative compared with those carried out by Epitiro – which much of the industry uses to gauge how systems are performing comparatively.
“Ironically, BT is shown to perform well in the eyes of customers in the aspects of the report that do not depend upon line length such as customer service, technical help and overall satisfaction.
“Ofcom’s report is also out of date because we are rolling out new broadband technology, ADSL2+, which provides much higher speeds. At the beginning of June BT announced that it will more than double broadband speeds later this year for its residential and business customers to up to 20Mb/s, at no extra cost, following a £1.5 billion investment in new technology.”
