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Most broadband users stuck on old fashioned copper-based networks are receiving nowhere near the advertised top download speed from their Internet service providers (ISPs) the communications watchdog Ofcom confirmed Tuesday.Providers that offer “up to 8 megbits per second (Mbps)” download speeds via a copper based (DSL) network such as that operated by BT rarely get close to the theoretical top speed, with the national average being 3.9 Mbps.Ofcom said that all the DSL-based ISPs throttle internet access in order to reserve some capacity for technical reasons. In practice, the top speed achievable on a supposed 8 Mbps service is around 7.2 Mbps, Ofcom said, and even then the user would have to be located very close to the local telephone exchange to enjoy such a good service.Fewer than 10% of customers on an “up to 8 Mbps” package enjoy speeds of more than 6 Mbps and around 20% receive average speeds of less than 2 Mbps.Cable customers get a better service, with customers on Virgin Media’s cable service experiencing speeds of up to 10 Mbps, though even this service can be affected by heavy usage from neighbours. The average speed for Virgin Media cable customers is within a range of 8.1 and 8.7 Mbps, compared to average speeds of between 3.8 and 4.2 Mbps on a BT connection, according to Ofcom's findings.Tiscali customers suffer the worst Internet speeds in the UK, closely followed by AOL users. Tiscali download speeds vary, on average, between 3.2 and 3.7 Mbps. Tiscali is now owned by Carphone Warehouse and its customers are in the process of being migrated over to the better performing TalkTalk service, also owned by Carphone Warehouse.Connection speeds are normally slowest in the evening between 8pm and 10pm, Ofcom’s report found, while city dwellers tend to get faster speeds than rural users.It is common practice among many ISPs to throttle access speeds at times of peak usage in order to prevent heavy users – typically those downloading media files – from slowing down the service for all users. Some ISPs offer packages allowing unlimited downloads between midnight and 8:00am in an effort to encourage heavy users to do much of their downloading outside of the peak hours.