It is quite common for customers to get only a fraction of the speeds that are advertised but there are a few things you can do to speed up your broadband connection.

Not long ago the minimum speed that would be considered as broadband was around 512Mbit, but with the latest in video streaming technology 2Mbit is really a more realistic minimum speed allowing users to take advantage of broadband connections.

Whether speed is really important to you does depend on what you use your connection for. If you only use your internet connection to send and receive email and, say, for online banking you could probably get away with very little – even just a fraction of an advertised speed of 8Mbit will do just fine. However if you enjoy video streaming such as BBC iPlayer you would need a connection that is substantially faster.

So, if you are saddled with a connection that is too slow for your needs, what can you do to improve speeds? It might not be readily apparent but very often your broadband provider can increase your speed if they take the time to fine tune the settings on your broadband line, so it is definitely worth giving them a call.

If you use an old Wi-Fi router to link your laptop to your broadband modem you might want to try upgrading to newer technology.

You could also consider changing to a broadband provider that uses a different technology to link your home to their equipment. If you are some distance away from your exchange you may want to switch away from ADSL technology – used by BT Total Broadband, Talk Talk broadband, Tiscali broadband and so on to, say, cable technology such as Virgin Media broadband.

Thankfully technological improvements are resulting in increased broadband speeds all the time. Also, the government has committed to ensuring that every household has access to at least 2Mbit broadband, so you might see a bump in available speeds even if you are in a rural location.

Great news for consumers: the broadband market is now so saturated that broadband providers are increasingly competing with rock bottom prices and lots of bells and whistles to get the few remaining customers who are subscribing for the first time or switching. Of these two, switching customers are now the main target, purely because there are many people who can be persuaded to switch providers – given the right deal.

Getting a customer to switch presents a number of hurdles. The customer needs to call their current provider to cancel and to provide them with a PAC code; they need to sort out new billing details and worst of all risk going through a ‘dead’ period when they have no broadband access at all. If Think broadband wants you to switch away from your Tiscali broadband, they need to offer you a pretty good deal.

As small reductions are unlikely to persuade (and margins are already tight for providers), now broadband providers have switched to giving equipment away for free – whether laptops or Xbox consoles or some other nice gadget to have. You should remember however that as attractive as these freebies sound you are likely to pay for it in some way, whether it is by taking out a long contract or by paying a premium monthly fee.

Essentially, switching broadband providers is not likely to be of major benefit. If you are getting great speeds already you might want to remain with your provider, on the other hand if your broadband speeds are really low or not close to the advertised speed, this might be an obvious incentive to switch.

Take any offer you have received and compare the different broadband deals online, and then make an informed decision.