SamKnows releases first broadband preformance report

I posted back in May about ISP watchers SamKnows.com who launched a bid to discover the truth about the state of UK broadband by recruiting volunteers to install a monitoring device on their network, to collect performance data (the geographical distribution is shown above).

They have now released their first report, a 40 page pdf which can be downloaded here.

On page 2 of the report is the main summary

In the majority of metrics there was little discernable difference between most
ISPs;

• Zen Internet offered the fewest failures across all metrics;
• Virgin Media’s cable services and Be/O2’s services provided a consistently low latency throughout, whilst Virgin.Net (Virgin’s ADSL service) performed poorly.
• BT provided the fastest throughput when measured as a percentage of implied line speed (an estimate of the potential maximum speed of the line)
• Be/O2 and Virgin Media produced the greatest raw throughput (in megabits per second), which can likely be attributed to the nature of their products.
• Virgin Media’s cable throughput remained consistent on their 2, 4 and 10Mbps products, but was quite variable on their 20Mbps product.
• Testing highlighted the use of traffic shaping in the networks of BT and PlusNet, which resulted in certain classes of traffic slowing significantly during peak hours.

Being on the Virginmedia XL (20 Mbps package) I can confirm their results are pretty much what I have experienced.

My broadband speed tests

Following on from my post about the SamKnows.com monitoring initiative, I decided to do a check on my broadband speed, firstly I used the very pretty graphical test at speedtest.net initially it chose a recommended server in Maidenhead and I only got a pathetic 9345Kbps download, switching to an alternative in London I got the following results (17397Kbps download and 703Kbps upload).



Next I check the speed test at Broadband-expert.co.uk and got the following (19.9Mbps download and 704 Kbps upload)



So seems my 20Mbps connection is preforming well.

On the broadband-expert.co.uk website it also has accumulated results (click speed test results button at bottom of screen) for most of the UK ISPs and my ISP VirginMedia seems to come out pretty well, despite the introduction of even more extreme and complicated traffic shaping schemes.

Bid to find the truth about broadband preformance

ISP watchers SamKnows.com have launched a bid to discover the truth about the state of UK broadband by recruiting volunteers to install a monitoring device on their network, to collect reams of independent performance data.

They are aiming to attract 200 volunteers who'll be sent a free tweaked Linksys router (a WRT54GL) that will measure and report download speeds for HTTP and non-HTTP traffic, latency, packet loss, DNS response, and website loading times.

It comes as there is a sharp increase in consumer anger against ISPs over blatenty misleading marketing campaigns, opaque traffic management policies and low investment in infrastructure.

I have signed up, so wait to hear.