Fed up with slow broadband? Call us free on
0800 542 4704 and switch to a faster service.
Important: The speed checker will measure
results at your current location, so wait until you are home and
connected to your home network before beginning to check your
broadband speeds.
How the broadband speed test tool works
Broadband speed tests are a quick and easy way to find out if
your service is giving you the speeds you signed up for. All it
takes is the simple click of a button and the broadband speed
checker will start testing your connection, by sending a request
('ping') to your server and measuring the time it takes to receive
a response.
Understanding your broadband speed test results
Download speeds
When you download content from the web, for instance a music
file or video clip, the speed at which you receive this information
is measured in Megabits per second (Mbps). The higher your download
speeds, the faster you can receive information.
Slow download speeds might impact your experience when streaming
videos from BBC iPlayer, listening to music on Spotify or trying to
download tracks from iTunes. You can pretty much forget streaming
movies from services like Love Film to your PlayStation 3 or
internet-enabled TV if your download speeds are very slow. Anything
above 14.7Mbps is better than the current national average, and
should allow you to perform most online tasks without
interruption.
Upload speeds
Upload speeds are also measured in Mbps. They tell you how
quickly you can send information to the internet, for example, when
you add video clips to Facebook or the images to your blog or
Twitter account. The faster your upload speeds, the quicker your
content will appear online. Upload speeds are usually much slower
than download speeds - anything above 2Mbps is acceptable on a
standard broadband connection.
How did your broadband connection perform in the speed
test?
Are your actual download and upload speeds slower than you were
expecting and significantly lower than the 'up to' speeds that were
advertised for your package? If this is impacting on your online
experience and causing delays to content loading or download times,
you may be paying over the odds for a service that isn't fast
enough to meet your needs.
Things that can slow down your internet service
There are many factors that can cause your broadband to slow
down. If you live far from your nearest telephone exchange, this is
likely to make the performance worse. If you and your next door
neighbour signed up to the same broadband deal for the same price,
one of you might receive a faster connection and the other will
have to put up with a slightly slower one, simply because one
household is located closer to the exchange.
Your speeds may slow down significantly during peak hours. These
are the times when a wave of internet users logs on to browse the
web, for example right after work. Generally, your broadband is
likely to be slower between 5pm and 10pm on a weekday. This
rise in internet activity forces providers to slow down their
overall download speeds in order to provide an equal service to all
of their customers.
While there can be occasional drops in speeds due to service
issues, if you take several speed tests on consecutive days and
discover that your actual speeds are nowhere near what was
advertised, it's time to call your provider and ask them to
troubleshoot your connection.
Read our handy
guide to learn how to speed up your broadband connection for
free.
I am not happy with my broadband speeds - how do I switch
providers?
The easiest way to get a better broadband deal is by calling a
free, independent Switching Service. Simplifydigital's team of
friendly Switching Support experts are available 7 days a week on
0800 542 4704.
