BT Openreach, the company primarily responsible for the rollout of superfast next gen broadband in the UK has been running into more than a few problems getting the actual cabinets set up. In the case of the installation in Middlewich last week these are sometimes technical problems; contractors managed to cut through an electricity cable which shut off the power for around 400 homes in the area as well as various businesses for more than a few hours.

But technical issues aside, It’s the cabinets that people are having problem with. Unlike cable, mobile broadband or other internet without phone line services, BT has to use fairly large cabinets to maintain this new network, and the positioning of these has lead with resistance from conservation groups in the past. Some groups in Brighton have this week joined residents from both Muswell Hill and St. Albans in complaining about the cabinets and their positioning.

A letter sent to BT from the conservation groups stated:

“There is no doubt we have to move with the times and that we need super-fast broadband, especially in a vibrant city like Brighton. Having said that, I’m not convinced the solution put forward by BT is the right and proper one. We are not saying no – we just want to be consulted.”

The new installations will allow customers to access the net at speed of up to 40 Mbps, although BT suggest this would rise to 60 Mbps in the future. The technology relies on using fibre optic cable right up to the BT cabinets which would then be distributed by more traditional copper wire into the home. It’s not as a fast as directly putting a fibre into a house, but for BT it makes much more business sense and the initial prices we’ve seen about the service will be put it amongst one of the best broadband deals around.

Hopefully BT will be able to find a better mix of communication with local communities and the placement in these cabinets to avoid such PR problems in the future. Those who can’t wait for superfast fibre optic broadband should check out Virgin Broadband reviews as the only cable company around that offers such services currently.

Every month new figures come out detailing which providers are offering their customers the best average speed, which can really help people who are looking for a provider that is going to give them the best possible speed boost.

Before we go into the chart though, it’s worth noting that although these providers offer some of the best broadband deals around, the speed you will get on most of them will vary and depend on your location, quality of your phone lines and the distance from the exchange.

Download:

1. Virgin Media  – 9.281Mbps

2. Be Broadband (O2) – 5.616Mbps

3. TalkTalk ( Tiscali ) – 3.887Mbps

4. Sky– 3.804Mbps

5. BT – 3.616Mbps

6. PlusNet – 3.250Mbps

7. Orange – 3.215Mbps

8. Eclipse – 2.921Mbps

9. AOL – 2.655Mbps

Upload:

1. Be Broadband (O2) – 0.756Mbps

2. Virgin Media – 0.609Mbps

3. Sky – 0.492Mbps

4. BT – 0.467Mbps

5. TalkTalk ( Tiscali ) – 0.464Mbps

6. Orange – 0.423Mbps

7. Eclipse – 0.366Mbps

8. AOL – 0.354Mbps

9. PlusNet – 0.331Mbps

It’s interesting to note that while cable provider Virgin Media is really pushing the download barrier as usual, it’s ADSL provider Be Broadband that is topping the upload charts. Upload might not be as good for some applications are download, but it can still be a great thing to have fast upload, especially if you plan to use file sharing tools, VOIP or online gaming on your connection.

Note that these speeds list and involved fixed line broadband providers, so the speeds for a mobile broadband service through a  mobile or pay as you go dongles won’t be found in the list.

The technology may not come without its fair share of problems, but search engine giant Google has suggested that the growth of the UK broadband market that has appeared saturated on fixed line connections will continue to grow thanks to mobile broadband technology and the increasing appeal of smart phones and other mobile devices like the iPad.

Talking to The Telegraph, Google’s Head of Technology Matt Brittin commented on this change:

“As growth in broadband starts to flatten off, we’re seeing the next wave. The big shift is to mobile internet. Between 25-30% of consumers use their mobiles to access the internet. But in three years’ time analysts believe more people will be accessing it from their mobiles than from a desktop. That’s a massive change.”

For those customers who have been searching for the solution of using the internet without phone line connections, mobile broadband has presented a big opportunity and the market has indeed been growing quite solidly in the last couple of years. Demand for dongles has now fallen back from what it was, but the huge popularity of Android and the iPhone has kept the market more than healthy.

The future of the technology is also likely to improve speed dramatically and offer less bandwidth limits to customers. Future Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology should start to be used by companies sometime in the next year so whether people are using dongles for laptops or their smartphones to access their broadband services, things should be improving shortly for the technology.

Until then Google’s prediction seems a little bit like stating the obvious; the figures and the market have been around for a while and don’t appear to be going anywhere any time soon.