Broadband Users Put Up With Slow Wi-Fi

The speed of home broadband connections is significantly lower over Wi-Fi than over wired connections, with many consumers finding the experience of streaming videos and playing online games unsatisfactory over Wi-Fi.

Consumers lose an average of 30 percent of download speed when using Wi-Fi connections in the home compared to fixed broadband, according to research by network testing company Epitiro. Latency also increases by an average of 10 to 20 percent, which can make using VoIP services such as Skype and watching video-on-demand extremely frustrating.

“Laboratory tests showed that download speeds reduce sharply as signal strength decreases,” states the report. “As speeds are slower, subscribers will notice a difference in the time it takes to download a large file. However, the data suggests that popular activities such as emailing and web surfing are not likely to be noticeably slower for consumers when Good to Excellent signal strength is achieved.”

Wi-Fi signal degradation

Wi-Fi speeds can be degraded by physical barriers such as walls, doors and furniture, as well as interference from other devices in the same frequency range (normally 2.4GHz), including baby monitors, television remote controls, microwave ovens, and cordless phones.

Performance also depends on the ability of the Internet service provider to offer a reliable service, according to the report, and consumers – particularly in rural areas – should choose their ISP carefully. “If you have a poor quality router and you are using Wi-Fi at some distance away from it, you could struggle to have a decent Skype conversation,” Professor Andy Nix, a wireless expert at Bristol University, told BBC News.

This echoes a warning from BT that some of the hardware used in today’s homes may act as a brake to the ultimate line speed of a superfast broadband connection. During a visit to BT’s Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) 100Mbps trial in Bradwell Abbey in October, company representatives told eWEEK Europe that some routers could cause a bottleneck, especially if customers are connecting to the Internet via their Wi-Fi network.

“The technology in a wireless chip could restrict you to 20Mbps,” said Johnny McQuoid, BT’s superfast broadband director, at the time.

Users can, of course, get faster wireless speeds by upgrading to 802.11n Wi-Fi. If the  router can support the 5GHz spectrum band at the same time as 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, or if the user can eliminate older devices which only support 2.4GHz, then the bottleneck can be eliminated and speeds comparable to Ethernet should be available.

Consumers want quality of experience

However, the report does not say users are unhappy. Most are willing to sacrifice download speed for ‘quality of experience’ – in other words, being able to move their devices around the house without having to worry about plugging them into a router.

“With sales of wireless devices (laptops, netbooks, tablets, smartphones) now outstripping desktop computers it is clear that wireless connectivity is important to consumers,” states the report. “It also implies that consumers have practical experience of the limitations with Wi-Fi and accept these for the benefit of mobility.”

Epitiro recommends that ISPs find a way to measure quality of experience, alongside speed, to ensure that services are meeting customer expectations, and to assist subscribers who may be getting lower speeds via Wi-Fi.

Research published by Ofcom earlier this month claims that very few consumers are able to get the headline speeds advertised by ISPs. The research revealed that just 14 percent of customers on ‘up to’ 20Mbps services received average download speeds of more than 12Mbps, while 58 percent received 6Mbps or less.

Meanwhile, Property website Rightmove announced this week that is is joining hands with BT to list the broadband speeds for some 1 million houses on its site, as high-speed Internet becomes a vital consideration for home buyers. The news follows a poll by ISP Review, which revealed that nearly two thirds of UK Internet users would be put off from buying a new house if it lacked a fast broadband connection.