Sky not delivering on promise

Posted on 20 Oct 2008 at 14:30

Sky's UK consumers report that their broadband speeds are falling significantly below the levels promise, new research reveals.

According to a study by Point Topic, customers subscribing to Sky's 8Mbps and 16Mbps packages have seen actual delivered speeds fall over recent months.

The survey shows that Virgin customers believe they are getting closer to the speed advertised by their operator than any other major ISP. And while all the other major ISPs have improved in customer perception as well, Sky, which was top of the pile early in the year, is the only ISP to have suffered a downturn.

"The damage to Sky seems to be mostly in its 8Mbps and 16Mbps packages, where take-up has increased but reported downstream speeds have decreased in proportion," said Oliver Johnson, CEO at Point Topic.

Overall consumers who purchase up to 16Mbps broadband believe that their broadband speeds are getting closer to their ISPs' promises of 16Mbps ,compared to six months ago.

However ADSL and cable customers purchasing 20Mbps broadband are divided.

Cable users believe their speeds approach 20Mbps more frequently than ADSL users, where there are technical barriers to achieving high end performance.

"Consumers still regard speed as a key benchmark of their ISP experience and are less likely to leave an ISP that lives up to expectations. It can be dangerous to promise more than can be delivered and operators appear, for the most part, to be taking this to heart," concludes Johnson.

The report was based on a recent poll of more than 6000 respondents conducted for Point Topic by Ipsos MORI and YouGov.

Author: Robert Jaques

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