PC Retail

Broadband speed tests are “misleading”

Matt Grainger Feb 13 2009, 11:44am

Tests confuse customers by failing to account for variables

OneStopClick, the technology research firm, has stated that broadband speed tests mislead customers as they are designed to deliver results that reinforce marketing instead of reflecting customer experience.

The announcement comes after a broadband comparison website claimed to be able to analyse speeds up to 20Mb and 50Mb.

OneStopClick says that these are capacity tests instead of true connection speed tests and “do not take into account connection delays caused by transmission control protocol, flow control or inherent latency and quality, therefore reporting only the capacity speed attainable not usable.”