Epitiro Report Confirms ‘Digital Divide’ in Europe
Huge Broadband Performance Gap Across European Cities
CARDIFF, UK - Epitiro, the broadband communications authority, today published the ‘European City Internet Performance Index 2008’, a preliminary report based on the company’s ongoing research into broadband services across the EU Member States.
The data, derived from testing broadband services from leading ISPs in Amsterdam, Dublin, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Milan, Paris and Zurich, is part of a major customer experience research project by Epitiro to understand the actual broadband service levels delivered to EU consumers and businesses.
The early findings confirm the existence of a ‘digital divide’ amongst European cities:
- Multi-national ISPs that trade under the same brand name in different countries vary in performance as much as 44%
- London and Amsterdam performed almost 3 times better than Madrid and Dublin in key tests
- Milan and Dublin broadband service levels lag severely behind other European cities tested
The research considered technical parameters that affect popular uses such as web surfing, VoIP, internet gaming and streaming video. Performance measurements were conducted using Epitiro’s recently expanded ISP-I™ network of satellite devices that operate as typical home computers by connecting to the internet and executing a series of test routines. The dedicated testing apparatus avoids the possibility of erroneous measurements with common ‘speed test’ web sites where unknown network paths and personal computer configurations often skew results.
“Regulators, consumer advocate groups and ISPs need to know the true broadband service levels delivered to customers,” said Gavin Johns, CEO, Epitiro. “The infrastructure investment we’ve made into Europe to provide accurate broadband performance data has now made this possible.”
The data revealed inconsistency amongst multinational ISPs service levels with Orange (41% difference), Alice (44%) and Tele2(31%) brands varying significantly in service quality from city to city.
“With technically advanced cities such as Stockholm, Helsinki and Berlin not included in this report the actual digital divide in Europe may be more severe,” continued Johns. “ Though we’re pleased to be sharing our data to date, we’re keen to complete the full research necessary to publish the ‘EU Member State Internet Performance Index’ in early 2009.”
Epitiro will share details of the ‘European City Internet Performance Index’ and its continuing research at the Broadband World Forum, Brussels, commencing Sept 29th.
Read the preliminary report here : EURO-IPI-Q3-2008.pdf
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About Epitiro
Epitiro is the global leader in comparative broadband benchmarking providing customer experience insight to ISPs, cellular and fixed line operators, device manufacturers, media providers, multi-national corporations and government regulators.
Voice, video and internet performance levels are benchmarked via Epitiro’s extensive deployment of ISP-I™ edge-based agents with results available through an on-line database access service or the regularly published Internet Performance Index™ report. The company also provides bespoke test and benchmarking solutions with products such as DataLite™, VocaLite™ and the Femtocell Test Suite™.
Clients such as BT, Vodafone, Orange, Virgin, Telecom New Zealand, Ofcom, Tiscali, KPN and many others benefit from Epitiro’s coverage of fixed and wireless broadband performance.
Founded in 2000, Epitiro is head-quartered in Cardiff, Wales, UK.
Press Contact: Iain Wood iwood@epitiro.comt: +44 (0) 870 850 6563
m: 07751 309 982
www.epitiro.com
