Most UK Internet Users Want ISPs to Promote Upload Rates

Sept. 12, 2011 - PRLog -- A new ISPreview.co.uk survey of 564 broadband users in the United Kingdom (*) has revealed that 93% would like Internet Service Providers (ISP) to put more effort into promoting upload speed on their packages. Likewise half of respondents said that upload speed was a "Very Important" consideration when picking a new ISP, while 35% rated it as of "Average Importance" and just 15% said that it was of "Low Importance". Finally 90% said that they knew how fast their current upload speed was.

Upon investigating the issue further ISPreview.co.uk discovered that none of the markets biggest six broadband providers (BT, Virgin Media, TalkTalk, Sky, Orange and O2) made any clear mention of upload performance alongside their primary package promotions, which typically only referenced the maximum possible download speed. Most tended to hide the upload rate away in their small print or on separate sub-pages, which were often concealed deeper within their respective websites.

"Anybody looking at the modern broadband ISP market could easily be forgiven for thinking that download speed was the only practical or important measure of internet access performance," remarked ISPreview.co.uk's Founder, Mark Jackson. "But what might have been true a few years ago is now no longer relevant."

Upload speed is a measure of how fast an ISP can move data from your computer to the internet. The advent of social networking, which often results in people uploading vast quantities of pictures and videos to share with friends and family online, has played a huge part in this. But it's not just social networking. Internet voice and especially video calls (e.g. Skype), Cloud computing (business use), VPN and multiplayer gaming are also hugely dependent upon your upload rate.

"Big internet providers need to recognise that upload speed is becoming vitally important for consumers. Nobody likes to hang around on their computer for hours on end while their family photos are uploaded to Facebook, not to mention being forced to suffer unstable or low quality Skype video calls because the consumer, without even realising it, has chosen a broadband package with a lower upload rate. Upload performance is generally easy to explain and more reliable than download speed but many ISPs, perhaps fearful that consumers won't be able to understand the difference, still appear unwilling to clearly publicise their speeds. This needs to change," concluded Jackson.