Broadband test results coming in

Broadband speed tests are being submitted from all over the Audlem Online area. This follows many reports of a deterioration in broadband speeds over recent weeks.

We now have the results of several hundred individual tests on the Audlem Online database that show a wide variety of results – the best result has achieved about 5.2mbps while there are several occasions where the result has been less than 0.1mbps. The average broadband speed taking into account all our results so far is 2.5mbps.

Clearly the test is affected by other factors than the raw speed of the broadband connection – speed of computer, nature of local internet routing, delays imposed by various firewalls and virus checkers, but nevertheless the results do show speeds very considerably less than could reasonably be expected. Other independent speed check websites seem to back this up.

Our intention is to gather the test results for a further few days (with a cut-off at the end of Sunday October 10th). We will then evaluate the recorded speeds as best we can and use them as evidence of a problem in the area which needs to be addressed.

Martha Lane FoxOne of the founders of lastminute.com, Martha Lane Fox, was made the previous Government's first Champion for Digital Inclusion and was to head a new cabinet-based Digital Public Services Unit.

This has been cut back under the Coalition government and in June it was decided that the unit will not be established. She, however, continues as the Government's digital champion with her main public job being to widen public access to the internet.

After the scale back, Martha Lane Fox said: "The great news is that the Prime Minister wants me to continue to engage everybody in the country with using the internet." She's obviously the key person to receive Audlem's detailed research on rural broadband speeds.

The Audlem testIf we find that our test figures are rejected as evidence of poor broadband quality, we will ask for an automated test that can be run and recorded on the website in the same way as our own, and then use the results from that process to add weight to our demands for a better service.

Meanwhile it is important to get as many test results as we reasonably can (although it should be stressed that tests from a variety of computers, locations and times are more important than multiple tests from the same location in quick succession). To make the test easier to do, the link required to launch it is now included at the head of the Audlem Online home page – "Run our Broadband Speedtest". You will then have to scroll to the bottom of the news item.

Or simply click on "Run Test" below. The test will take a few seconds, and the resulting data will be added to the database. The details of location are simply to allow us to determine whether there are particularly "bad" areas of the village, but individual anonimity will always be preserved.

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