UK ISPs mislead users on broadband speeds
p2pnet news | Advertising:- There’s a huge disparity between broadband speeds advertised by UK providers and what’s actually delivered, says a survey by consumer group Which?
Tests of 300 customer broadband connections with advertised speeds of ‘up to’ 8Mbps were in fact only achieving an average download speed of 2.7Mbps, says the study.
The lowest speed found was 0.09Mbps, while the highest was 6.7Mbps.
“Which? has now called on regulator Ofcom and the UK’s Trading Standards to start a fresh investigation into UK broadband,” says Connected Home News.
The story has which.co.uk editor Malcolm Coles declaring:
It is shocking that Internet service providers can advertise ever-increasing speeds that seem to bear little resemblance to what most people can achieve in reality.
If it’s unlikely that you’ll reach the advertised speed it should be made clear up front, so that you know with some certainty what you’re buying.
According to a Which? survey conducted in conjunction with the tests, “only one in ten of its members thought that a broadband connection advertised as 8Mbps would actually deliver this,” says Connected Home News, adding:
“A BT spokesman confirmed that 8Mbps would be a rarity for users: ‘Virtually no-one will get it. The laws of physics start applying as soon as it leaves the exchange and you would have to live on top of the exchange to get the full 8 megabits’.”
Also See:
Connected Home News – Survey finds ‘true’ British broadband speeds well below advertised speeds, August 2, 2007
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August 2nd, 2007 at 11:03 am
Many UK ISPs, especially the big ‘name’ ones – my own experience was with Orange – routinely mislead customers regarding speeds, usage limits, throttling, mac codes and so on. Shopping around, we’re all used to seeing the “up to 8mb” and “Unlimited*” type crap in adverts. Nothing will get done, and the customer continues to suffer because of the lack of alternative choices within the UK broadband market. So far, only ISPs I see bucking the trend and being honest (though they do use the ‘up to 8mb’ hype) are the entanet resellers.
August 2nd, 2007 at 6:38 pm
Another thing to watch for is the difference between 8Mbps and 8MBps, which companies will count on your not knowing.