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ofcom rates the speed of ISPs

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Tiscali doesn't score very high, and I thought surprisingly, Plusnet does rather well.
Virgin comes out as the fastest.
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/features/broadbandspeedsjy
Virgin comes out as the fastest.
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/features/broadbandspeedsjy
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I live 1 mile from the telephone exchange, 1 mile of copper cable slows the digital signal down due to noise.
It's "Up to 8Mb"- in ideal circumstances. 8Mb is a max, not a typical figure and clearly expressed as such.
There are physical factors and technical limitations that todays Ofcom report fails to take on board. True they're a bit techy for most people to be interested in, but a telecoms regulator writing a report of this nature should take them into account.
"Advertised broadband speeds are often misleading, according to a report by the communications watchdog Ofcom out this morning.
It says there is a "lack of reliable information on the speed" by internet service providers. The investigation found average broadband speed was less than 60% of the typical advertised performance ..."
Broadband speed claims are "unreliable" – report
Thanks to londondulwich for the original post
O2 were probably offering you their LLU ADSL2+ service, which is NOT the 'up to 8mbs' ADSL service which you are comparing it to, as it uses different technologies on the same copper
O2 wouldve offered you adsl +2
different options..its LLU
and can be upto 20meg in good areas.
you prob wouldve and could receive 8meg
So what the report is suggesting, is that ISPs should advertise the same package multiple times with different speeds and then say... oh... sorry, you can't have this one nor this one. Using "up to" is better terminology for the ISP and the end user - if the end user doesn't undersatnd "up to" then they're shouldn't get it.
It's a bit like saying in the lottery, you can win up to £X million - but if you get 3 numbers you won't get this (you'd get £10) but not what you wanted to get. And if you get 2 numbers or less - you get nothing, but then you still won up to that amount as £0 preceeds them all....
Most companies when you enter your number or postcode it will tell you your 'true' speeds which is a good thing i think
Brilliant example! Good one.
O2 can and do give you more speed on the 'up to 8 MBps' Standard service, because they use ADSL2+ on their LLU exchanges. My sister has this package, lives about 3/4 mile from the exchange and gets a steady 7.1MBps. So when they said they could double your speed, they may not have been stretching the truth too far.
i have tiscali and on average i get 3.8 a mate in the next street who is on bt doesnt even get 1mb