Most of the time, the real test of an internet connection is how quickly you can download files from the internet – say like a game demo, or large files like a TV Show.
Web-based speed testers have their place – they can be a quick way to run a check to make sure your broadband is running in tip-top condition, so it’s important to know if the information that a speed test site is reporting is accurate. After all you don’t want to worry there’s something wrong with your internet connection, when in fact it’s perfectly fine.
As there are many speed tests out there, to make sure nobody is getting a raw deal we decided to test the testers...
We undertook an extensive research process to look at the accuracy of all the top speed testing sites, just to make sure they could handle our superfast speeds. At the same time, we got in touch with them all to ask them how they might cope with our new forthcoming 50Mb service, as well as taking a look at how they currently perform for our 20Mb service. Most recently, we also expanded this testing to look at how well they were able to measure more common speeds such as 10Mb.
To run this experiment, we took a look at some of the most popular sites people visit to test their broadband:
- Speedtest.net (London)
- Speedtest.net (Maidenhead)
- Broadband.co.uk
- Broadband-Expert.co.uk
- ISPReview.co.uk
- BroadbandChoices.co.uk
- BroadbandWatchdog.co.uk
- BroadbandSpeedChecker.co.uk
- Thinkbroadband.com
- BroadbandGenie.co.uk
- Numion.com
- Speedchecker.org
What we found was surprising – we always suspected that some speed tests out there weren’t able to keep up with our speeds, but we never realised just how bad some of them are.
In our latest round of testing we were quite shocked to find that over half the sites our broadband boffins tested provided inaccurate results. In fact when we tested these sites on their ability to measure 10Mb – a pretty common speed that many UK broadband users would be able to get through fibre optic or high-speed ADSL – some of the speed tests couldn’t barely report half the true speed. As we’re sure you’d agree that’s pretty disappointing, and very misleading if you’ve used one of those sites.
Check out our chart below to see the results of our latest testing from January 2009:
If your thinking of testing your own connection, try one of the sites above, and perhaps compare with the others yourselves – you might be as surprised as us to find how different the results can be. They won’t always be right as these sites can get busy and also be affected by congestions, but currently there are just five sites that can have the capacity to measure ultrafast services like 50Mb, a few more that can measure 20Mb and a handful that can’t even measure up to 10Mb accurately.
We contacted the sites about these results and most of them have been very keen to work with us to improve their test to make sure they are accurate, especially when it comes to our new 50Mb service. After all, a lot of these sites are making recommendations on which ISPs perform the best so you need to be able to trust the advice you’re being given!
We’ll update this information on a regular basis to help ensure you know which sites are capable of reporting accurate speeds. Since our initial discussions with them, we’ve seen some great progress but as you can see from the results, there is still a long way to go.
Why is the situation so bad? We’ve included some of our findings on the next page along with an explanation as to why these testing sites just aren’t doing our broadband speeds justice…
