BT and Ofcom save Broadband users

It was about time BT, UK's largest broadband supplier, to demand more transparency regarding advertised broadband speeds. The move was inspired from piled up customers’ reports, expressing deep disappointed by the mismatch between advertised and actual speeds. An independent survey found that only 15% of people who bought 8 megabit per second packages actually got the speed! This is a sad and ridiculously low percent creating an imperative need for regulators to agree rules about how broadband speeds could be sold to the public.

Guy Bradshaw of BT said "The industry needs to join together with Ofcom to agree a set of principles as to how these messages should be communicated and advertised so that the understanding with the consumer is as accurate as it can be."

BT’s response comes in a bit late. The issue was raised long ago by Gadget Show, a TV show on Channel 5. On a respectable try to enlighten and educate users, Gadget Show offered a free service through their website, giving you the exact upload and download speed of your system at any given time. The move was part of a campaign to identify which suppliers contradicted their advertised speeds.

The explanation of the phenomenon lies simply on the fact that actual speeds vary from user to user. There is a big difference between the line speed and the actual downloading/uploading speed.

Millions of UK customers use BT's DSL Max, yet only a 35% of them achieve an 8mbps speed while the rest suffer reduced speed by factors such as distance from the exchange, poor equipment, and interference from electrical appliances.

Ofcom is currently reviewing the way broadband is marketed to consumers, but it is up to us to raise our voice and demand if not optimal speeds at least some honesty.