According to the latest reports from Ofcom, it seems that many Broadband ISPs may well be trying to pull a fast one with their customers. The latest data released by Ofcom says that there is a large difference between the speeds that companies are advertising as delivering, and the speeds they are actually delivering to their customers, and that the gap between these two figures is actually increasing.

Last year, the average actual speed was 56% of the average advertised speeds, and this year, the average actual speed is down to just 46% of what was promised. This means that millions of broadband users are being duped, and some internet service providers are even advertising maximum speeds which in reality not a single one of their customers is receiving.

Obviously this isn’t fair, and Ofcom are now pushing for tighter controls on selling broadband to the UK market in order to help more consumers to receive the service that is advertised and that they are paying for. An end is needed to all the misleading claims about broadband.

At the moment, according to Ofcom, the only provider who is delivering close to the maximum speed that they are advertising is Virgin Media, and the reason for this is that they have the advantage of a relatively new cable network in many urban areas. Companies such as AOL, BT, O2, Orange and Sky who are all running through BT’s aging network, are falling far behind because the copper lines that link homes to the local BT exchange are being stretched to the limits of their capability to support high speed internet access, and the longer phone lines can only support slower speeds.

At the moment ISPs typically offer broadband services that promise speeds of ‘up to’ 8Mbps or 20Mbps or 40Mbps, and Ofcom wants these rules tightened so that the ISP can only promise a maximum speed if at least some people can actually receive it. They are also suggesting that better advertising would be if broadband services were advertised with a ‘typical speed range’ so that people would get a better idea of what they would be likely to get. If this sort of advertising were to be put into place, it would reduce the lack of transparency in broadband advertising and be much fairer to the public who are purchasing these packages.

In response to these calls from Ofcom, the Advertising Standards Authority has announced a review into the way broadband is advertised.

Ofcom has also put together a new code of conduct for the Broadband industry which if put into place, would allow customers to cancel their broadband service with no penalty within the first three months of service if the speed provided was significantly lower than the speed which they had been promised.