The Office of National Statistics (ONS) has released new figures that show that over 42% of the UK’s broadband connections are slower than 2Mb a second. Last year, a statement by Ofcom claimed that “the average headline speed has doubled in a year to reach 4.6Mb/sec”.

But the latest figures from the ONS imply that the 4.6Mb average is being lifted by a small number of high speed connections such as 24Mb and ADSL2+ broadband lines. The ONS figures only take into account the headline speed and not the actual speed, meaning that many more UK broadband connections could be well below 2Mb per second.

In a separate report released last week, Ofcom said that the vast majority of broadband users did not know how fast their connection was, stating “The proportion of broadband customers unaware of their connection speeds has continued to grow, 55% were unaware of their connection speed”.

The Ofcom report also showed that almost 20% of broadband users were unhappy with the speed of their internet connections, blaming the press for confusing consumers. The report said “Press coverage about advertised maximum or headline speeds differing from actual speeds may have increased the confusion”.