By Kate Brown
In a recent Which? study of 235,000 households, findings revealed that customers are receiving far slower broadband speeds than what they pay for. It was found that customers on a 38Mbps service, received an average broadband speed of 19 Mbps. Customers on super-fast packages of up to 200Mbps, received an average speed of 52Mbps.
Broadband providers currently advertise “up to” speeds, but from 23 May this will only be allowed if that speed is received by 50% of customers at peak times.
Which?’s managing director of home services, Alex Neill, said: “This change in the rules is good news for customers who have been continuously let down by unrealistic adverts and broadband speeds that won’t ever live up to expectations”.
Many have requested that the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) also ban broadband providers from using the word “fibre” in advertisements if the connections partially rely on a copper connection. Fibre and copper-based services deliver very different experiences, however this is often not described. Founder and chief executive of CityFibre, Greg Mesch, commented: “Although we welcome the new rules on advertising speeds coming into force, the ASA hasn’t gone far enough to stop consumers from being misled by broadband adverts”.
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