Today everyone understands that the digital age has changed the way people shop, bank and play. But it seems that a rising number of consumers complain that they are stuck with slow broadband and can’t leave costly contracts.
At the moment, a home broadband service in the United Kingdom costs about £35 per month, and subscribers are normally tied into 1-year contracts. However, the latest research from the local communications regulator Ofcom revealed that the typical speed varies dramatically around the country. It averages 26Mbps in urban areas, 18Mbps in suburban areas and 10Mbps in the countryside. In the meantime, lots of subscribers from rural and hard-to-reach locations are stuck on speeds of less than 2Mbps.

It is understandable that people who are paying such money for their broadband and still getting patchy service are so angry. The research also showed that since April 2013 there’s been a 27% increase in the number of people seeking help about broadband issues. First of all, people from rural areas find unreliable Internet a particular struggle.
British government is going to ensure superfast broadband, promising speeds of 30Mbps and above to reach 95% of homes and businesses in the country by 2017. It already extended its deadline by 2 years, but some areas still have little chance of being upgraded to the new fiber optic technology in the short term. The experts explain that installation is expensive and takes a long time. Broadband providers are upgrading areas which are already well-connected first before starting working with more isolated regions.
There are lots of complaints from rural citizens facing problems with their broadband providers, and Ofcom’s latest report named Orange/EE as the most complained about provider last summer. Indeed, the company has received double the average number of complaints from users. BT was on the second place, again showing a significant rise over the previous quarter.
30% of people calling their Internet provider are doing so to complain, and connection speeds remain the biggest problem for customers. Among other frequent complaints there are troubles with customer service and switching packages. Part of the problem is that most broadband connections are still delivered via the “grindingly slow” old copper telephone network, which is decades old and subject to numerous shortcomings. The worst part is when your house is a long distance from the local exchange, as in this case the strength of your connection weakens, resulting in a slow broadband speed.