How fast is fast enough?
Our internet connections today are faster and cheaper than we could have dreamed of ten years ago, and few if any use dial-up modems any more, but with each increase in speed comes an increase in expectations, and this is particularly evident with mobile.
A survey conducted by Broadband Genie found that two thirds of the people they questioned felt their mobile broadband service was just not fast enough, with only 11% being perfectly happy with the speeds they receive. The survey revealed that the public perception of mobile broadband is that it is comparable in speed and stability to fixed-line broadband, a perception no doubt supported by misleading adverts which show mobile phones apparently accessing the internet in the blink of an eye, and operators quoting maximum possible speeds for their products, rather than the speeds realistically obtainable.
Customer satisfaction is also related to what people use it for. Many people report that for accessing their email, their mobile is more than fast enough and it is signal availability which is the biggest issue. But when it comes to browsing websites on a mobile, far too many are virtually inaccessible. Some of that blame must fall on the website designers who not only expect the user to have the largest possible screen and the latest version of Internet Explorer, but also assume everyone these days has high-speed broadband. Too many sites pump out bloated code, top heavy PDFs, Flash applets, graphics which have not been optimised for web delivery, and bandwidth-gobbling video, whilst neglecting content, the true raison d'etre for any website.
It is not just mobile broadband which fails to measure up. Recent research by Ofcom shows that, on average, the UK landline broadband user achieves a speed of just 57% of the advertised rate. Just 9% of customers on 8Mb lines get speeds above 6Mb, and 20% of customers get 2Mb or less. Whilst there are good technical reasons why ADSL performance is variable, the advertising of the product often gives unrealistic expectations.
26th August 2009
This article comes from the SKILLZONE email newsletter, published monthly since January 2008, and covering topics related to technology and the internet. All articles and artwork in the SKILLZONE newsletter are orignal content.