(Image Credit: iStockPhoto/Andrew Rich)
Ofcom’s infrastructure report in 2014 highlighted that significant investment has expanded the availability of superfast broadband, but also showed that raw speed alone does not guarantee a high-quality service. Building on that, Ofcom has today published an “Internet Quality of Service” study carried out by Actual Experience that examines the additional factors shaping users’ perceptions of service quality.
The study drew on a sample of more than 2,000 UK users, covering both consumers and small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) who access online services over residential broadband lines. The research concentrates on three core questions:
- How does the quality of typical services change as access speed increases?
- How much variation exists between providers, service types and rural versus urban users?
- What are the main causes and locations of issues that reduce service quality?
Speed is clearly an important factor in customer satisfaction: higher speeds generally corresponded with higher satisfaction. However, that relationship is not perfectly consistent. Performance can be affected by a range of variables, including problems with an in-home network, issues within an ISP’s infrastructure, or difficulties reaching external servers. Earlier research suggests that once a connection consistently delivers above about 10 Mbps, most typical web activities—loading pages and streaming videos—show little further benefit from additional speed, because they already perform smoothly.
In rural areas, where connection speeds are often lower, satisfaction falls sharply and speed becomes the dominant factor in users’ assessment of service quality. This underscores that while speed matters, it is not the only determinant of a reliable experience.
The study found the lowest satisfaction levels among SME services, highlighting the challenges some businesses face when running specific digital applications over residential broadband. The report also identified marked differences across ISPs, service categories, access speeds, and between rural and urban users.
To assess typical usage, the research tested a set of common consumer and SME services:
Consumer services –
- Web browsing
- Streaming video
- Consumer Voice-over-IP
SME services –
- Thin client applications delivered via VPN
- Video conferencing
- A widely used cloud service
The study placed no restrictions on access technologies. Participants used a mix of ADSL variants, VDSL (FTTC), FTTP/H, cable and other connections (for example, dial-up or satellite). Analysis concentrated on the four largest UK providers—BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin—while including other providers where appropriate. Measured package speeds were grouped into the following bands: <2 Mbps, 2–10 Mbps, 10–30 Mbps, 30–80 Mbps and >80 Mbps.
The full report and its detailed findings are available as a PDF from Ofcom.
Do you think a dataset that benchmarks “quality of service” should be developed? Share your thoughts in the comments.