Broadband: availability and speed survey results

We sent out a paper survey with a free post return, and followed up with reminder emails. We asked members to let us know if they could access broadband services and, if they could, what speed they were typically getting on their connection.

We appreciate members taking the time to respond and we we had a 21% return rate (196 organisations)  We've mapped the organisations that responded;

NICVA Members: Respondent Map- fig1

Only around 3% of NICVA members said they didn’t have broadband - five organisations said they were going to get broadband and one said they didn't want broadband.  No respondents said that they couldn't get access to broadband from their organisation address.    

Access to broadband - fig2

We asked respondents to say if their organisation is based at a “business address” or a “home address” and the majority, 90%, said they were based at a business address - see fig 3.

Business or Home Address - fig 3

Finally, we asked respondents to run some speed tests using a couple of free tools. While these speed tests are in no way definitive or scientific they are useful to give an approximation of the broadband speed. Around 25 respondents said they were getting speeds of less than 2 Mb/s which it could be argued isn’t broadband at all (at least it’s not dial up if you remember those days!).

BroadbandSpeed (Checked by respondents) - fig 4

We are planning to roll out new digital services and want to make sure that they are accessible to our members.  If your organisation is having problems getting access to broadband then please do get in touch.  

You can comment below or please contact me directly -  [email protected]  

You can check your broadband speed using one of the many free online speed testing tools - here are a couple you could try. 

• www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/diagnostics
• www.mybroadbandspeed.co.uk

It's usually advised to check your speed several times and at different times of the day over a period of a week or so as broadband speeds can vary a lot depending on demand.