Tesco top for email delivery

Tesco Broadband has come out on top of the UK's first Email Performance Index, run by Epitiro, but the message for the industry as a whole was "could do better".

The index was formed by analysing the email delivery speed of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) over the last year.

Tesco delivered 99.9 per cent of emails within three minutes, with Virgin coming just behind with 99.8 per cent.

The three minute figure was used as this is the point when users waiting for a confirmation email will think something is wrong if they have no reply - the industry average was 95.4 per cent.

After ten minutes users will assume the email is lost, which happened 3.4 per cent of the time - too much according to Epitiro.

"Consumers and businesses seeking a reliable email service need to consider performance metrics when choosing a service provider, and certainly shouldn't choose an ISP on price alone," said Gavin Johns, managing director of Epitiro.

Despite Virgin's high placing, a complaint about it by BT has been upheld by the Advertising Standards Agency.