Internet availability blog

Based on the complaints from consumer group, British broadband providers had investigated the problem of considerable reduction in speed of broadband.  The investigation has revealed that there is huge gap between the advertised speed and actual speeds.

 
About 300  connections  were critically tested. The advertised speed s of these  connections were 8Mbph. But the test results have confirmed that the average speeds were just 2.7Mbph. The maximum speeds reported was 6.7Mbph while the lowest was just 0.09Mbph.

 
This problem has been brought to the notice of ASA(Advertising Standards Authority) many times earlier. At rulings from the ASA have highlighted some of the contentious areas in advertising low cost  connection with high speed.

 
 It is also observed  that a significant number of people could not achieve the advertised connection speed due to their distance from their local exchange.

 
A spokesman for the Internet Service Providers’ Association had advised consumers not to choose a service by price alone. “Like anything, you get what you pay for. Customers should consider a range of features and specifications. Speed is just one indication of internet performance, good internet availability is another,” he says, adding that many reputable internet service providers will have a facility that enables customers to check speeds and availability.

 BT has indicated that that 8Mbps would be a rarity for users. The speed can never be achieved, because the distance of the user from the exchange is the main factor that decides the speed at the receiving end. There fore the advertisers should  make it clear that  it is unlikely  to obtain the advertised speed. This will help the users  at the time of buying the  services

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 9th, 2007 at 7:12 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.