Help stay connected and give your views on broadband

Monday 29 June 2015

Jersey’s competition watchdog says it won’t be able to look at ways of improving our broadband services unless more people sign up to take part in their new study.

The Channel Islands Competition and Regulatory Authorities needs 1,000 people across Jersey and Guernsey to give their views to get a good idea of the range of broadband providers and the packages being offered.

CICRA is looking at the services of all fixed-network broadband providers in the Channel Islands – JT, Sure and Newtel/YTel/Homenet.

CICRA chief executive Michael Byrne said: “For many months the media and individuals have expressed their views about the quality of broadband services offered in the Channel Islands. This is their chance to really have their experiences recorded and we encourage all broadband users to consider taking part.

“This is a great opportunity to identify where there may be issues in the islands' broadband infrastructure, the challenges being experienced and how it can be improved. Without volunteers it is nearly impossible to identify what we have and what is needed.”

“Operators and governments need to be sufficiently informed to begin considering where improvements may need to be made.”

CICRA is using leading edge technology to replicate each volunteer's typical broadband usage on their fixed-network broadband service for two months.

It's not keeping an eye on what you're doing online but uses your hardware to run its own diagnostics - assessing speeds and quality of service. The data is collected confidentially and won't be shared with the operators.

Mr Byrne said: “Without sufficient volunteers this study will not be able to take place and the level of information needed to consider improvements will not be available.”

You can find out more about the study here or on CICRA's Facebook page.