Broadband Speeds Vary by 33% throughout the Day
Special to TAG-IT News Agency
LONDON - Web users have to put up with wildly varying broadband speeds each day, according to new analysis from Top10.com, the UKs most popular broadband comparison website. Top10.coms data found that, on average, customers see their broadband speeds vary by a third over a 24-hour period.
Top10.com measured over 250,000 speed tests on its website over 90 days to calculate average speeds at each hour of the day for customers of every major broadband provider in Britain, helping it identify the speeds reached at the fastest and slowest times.
The Top10.com analysis is good news for night owls: the fastest time of the day for web browsing is 2AM, when the average speed is 7Mb, while the slowest time is 8PM, where a relatively sluggish 4.73Mb is achieved on average.
Broadband speeds vary for a number of reasons. The main reason is that demand on the network in the evenings slows down speeds compared to those received during the day. However, many internet providers adopt the practice of traffic shaping to control what speeds their customers can receive to stop heavy users hogging the available bandwidth. To see the full results visit our press area.
Alex Buttle from Top10.com said: Broadband is a bit like a motorway speeds get slower at peak times because everyones trying to use it at once. But the broadband speed you get also depends to some extent on your broadband providers policy towards traffic shaping. Some broadband providers actively throttle broadband speed to ensure a consistent broadband experience for all consumers on their network.
Some people view traffic shaping or throttling as a good thing because it helps manage demand and discourages heavy users from dominating the network. But other people, especially those who want to play games or watch TV online, get annoyed because their service can slow to a crawl.
Our data shows how much provider speeds vary but you need to check whether this will negatively affect how you use the web, or if its something you can live with.
Top10.com is the UKs most popular comparison site aimed at the broadband and mobile phone sector with over 1.5 million consumers using the site every month.
