MSE News: Advertised broadband speed claims are 'false'

Andrew1472

BT are confused by this and I'm not surprised.
Taken from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14295046

BT, whose 20Mbps service typically managed between 7.3 and 8.9Mbps, said that it was "confused" by Ofcom's reference to the speed gap.
"We give bespoke speed estimates to all customers at the point of sale and this is now underwritten by the [Ofcom] code of practice," the company said in a statement.
"No customer should be in any doubt as to the likely speed that they should expect from our service."


I was told I would get about 5Mbps when I signed up. I'm actually getting between 6 and 7Mbps.
Have I been misled? Nope!

If I hadn't been told then it might be a different story.

kwikbreaks

IMO BT are spot on with that. All this fuss about nothing has been stirred up by VM whose technology means their maximum possible speed isn't affected by distance.

The speed they deliver is impacted by how much they've oversold their capacity though. That is very area specific and although the majority of their customers get the advertised speed a significant minority can get absolutely abysmal performance and it can take months before it gets fixed too.

As it happens right now my VM connection is fine but in the future who can tell?

StuieUK34

HAHAHAHAHAHAAHA !!!!!!
Just done a line check option for our new place, and this comes up """ This estimate has been determined in accordance with Ofcom's Voluntary Code of Practice on Broadband speeds.VThis estimate has been determined in accordance with Ofcom's Voluntary Code of Practice on Broadband speeds. """"

So the advert is the usual rubbish saying upto 20mb, but there variable figure they can quote states i will receive between *** 11.0Mbps - 17.6Mbps ****
Why bother changing anything ? Even if your line can support a 16mb sync rate, your still only gonna get 11mb.

What Ofcom should have said is, advertisers must state the minimum speed you will get with DSL, as opposed to the highly and still Mis-leading Upto speeds!

My current place, am on DSL2 , the only LLU to offer that option on that exchange is o2/BE... There line checks said 17.5mb sync rate for me, as we are less than 1km from the exchange, but when doing the speedtests, no matter what time, average speed is 10.26mb , and naturally, given its o2, that means your actual download rate is around 2mb !

StuieUK34

kwikbreaks wrote: »

Once you exceeded 7GB between 9am and 3pm and/or 3.5GB between 4pm and 9pm. If you think you would regularly exceed those limits take 50Mbps instead as there is no downstream STM on that. P2P and NNTP are throttled though on all products from 5pm til midnight.

Not on o2, throttled 24/7 , been in constant battle with them since October.
There throttling is so messed up, gaming connections are nailed too (which they admit to), lots of games dont use client/server now, so work on a P2P like protocol, causes mayhem in terms of play-ability...

OFcom should have made it so that ISP's clearly state if they throttle, and how it affects gaming/downloading.

kwikbreaks

A lot of gamers on VM are complaining that the shaping is hitting their gaming too. I also forgot but at weekends it operates midday to midnight.

Dave_C_2

It's a non-story, Nothing has happened since the last one. This voluntary stuff will never change anything.

If you bought a 150 MPH Ferrari and it only did 20 MPH it would be straight back to the garage. Why should broadband be different?

My solution You buy an up to 10M package and only get speeds of 2M you pay 1/5 of the bill (including any telephony etc.) Then advertised speeds will quickly become realistic.

Dave

robpw2

i would like to respond but my internet speed is just not upto it lol

GlynD

I appreciate MSE Helen posting this story to advise users who are not aware of the shortfalls in the advertised speeds of broadband.

I wish I had cable again but I live too rurally

Arg

dodger1 wrote: »

I actually don't think the adverts are misleading.

I don't think you or anyone else who has said that understands what misleading means and it's not the first time ISPs have misadvertised their products to the public.

stilltheone

StuieUK34 wrote: »

HAHAHAHAHAHAAHA !!!!!!
Just done a line check option for our new place, and this comes up """ This estimate has been determined in accordance with Ofcom's Voluntary Code of Practice on Broadband speeds.VThis estimate has been determined in accordance with Ofcom's Voluntary Code of Practice on Broadband speeds. """"

So the advert is the usual rubbish saying upto 20mb, but there variable figure they can quote states i will receive between *** 11.0Mbps - 17.6Mbps ****
Why bother changing anything ? Even if your line can support a 16mb sync rate, your still only gonna get 11mb.

What Ofcom should have said is, advertisers must state the minimum speed you will get with DSL, as opposed to the highly and still Mis-leading Upto speeds!

My current place, am on DSL2 , the only LLU to offer that option on that exchange is o2/BE... There line checks said 17.5mb sync rate for me, as we are less than 1km from the exchange, but when doing the speedtests, no matter what time, average speed is 10.26mb , and naturally, given its o2, that means your actual download rate is around 2mb ! :(

This is just silly. I get the full download speed as indicated by my sync rate.
Perhaps your router or line needs tweaking.