34Mbps mean, across a population of ~67 million, suggests that there are substantial amounts of people getting much less than that. The data is broken down in more detail here[0], and while this isn't limited to just FTTC connections it still has some useful data.
Some takeaway points: Firstly, median speed is always lower than mean, often significantly so, as the mean speed is inflated by users with very fast connections. Secondly, the bottom 20% get very poor speeds, often in the ranges mentioned by the article. Perhaps the article should have said 20% rather than 40%, but I'm not sure that really changes the sting of the title much? Thirdly, and I think this is in some ways the most important takeaway, some users getting excellent connections appears to have no correlation whatsoever with users overall in that area. For example in the City of London, a very wealthy area generally, the top 20% get 94Mbps and the mean user gets 56Mbps. Howwever the median user only gets 39Mbps, and the bottom 20% get only 6.5Mbps - which is definitely little enough to experience the problems in the article.
And for the record, I too live in a very old village, some miles outside the nearest big city, and I pay for the best connection possible to get, which gets me actual speeds far below the "minimum advertised speed" it's supposed to reach. The problem is down to aging aluminium phone lines, which Openreach refuses to replace.
Some takeaway points: Firstly, median speed is always lower than mean, often significantly so, as the mean speed is inflated by users with very fast connections. Secondly, the bottom 20% get very poor speeds, often in the ranges mentioned by the article. Perhaps the article should have said 20% rather than 40%, but I'm not sure that really changes the sting of the title much? Thirdly, and I think this is in some ways the most important takeaway, some users getting excellent connections appears to have no correlation whatsoever with users overall in that area. For example in the City of London, a very wealthy area generally, the top 20% get 94Mbps and the mean user gets 56Mbps. Howwever the median user only gets 39Mbps, and the bottom 20% get only 6.5Mbps - which is definitely little enough to experience the problems in the article.
And for the record, I too live in a very old village, some miles outside the nearest big city, and I pay for the best connection possible to get, which gets me actual speeds far below the "minimum advertised speed" it's supposed to reach. The problem is down to aging aluminium phone lines, which Openreach refuses to replace.
0: https://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/councils