Little over 4 in 10 Irish consumers (44%) are happy with their home broadband speeds, according to new research released today by Switcher.ie.   

The research indicates that many consumers are in the dark over whether they are getting the speeds they are actually paying for. Despite the Government making a concerted effort through the National Broadband Plan to get Ireland up-to-speed, a third of broadband customers (34%) still say they have speeds of less than or equal to 30Mbps - the minimum target set out in the plan.

In fact, one in 10 (8%) claim to have speeds of less than 3Mbps, which is not even fast enough to watch Netflix in SD, while a further 8% claim to have speeds of 7 or 8Mbps, meaning it would take well over an hour to download a HD movie.

One in three people (33%) have checked their speeds and are sometimes or always getting lower speeds than they pay for. A huge three in five broadband customers (59%) have never tested their home broadband speed, and four in ten (39%) don’t even know what broadband speed they signed up to.

Little over four in ten consumers (44%) are happy with their home broadband speed, down from 51% last year, while the average speed people say they’ve got has dropped from 82Mbps to 68Mbps.

Commenting on the research, Managing Director of Switcher.ie, Eoin Clarke said, "Despite all of the talk about addressing the issue of sluggish broadband across the country, Irish broadband is still stuck in the slow lane. In an increasingly digital world, broadband is now considered a household essential, alongside energy, so it’s very disappointing to see a drop in the average speed people say they’ve got in the home, and a corresponding decline in customer satisfaction."

Source: www.businessworld.ie