UK broadband speed ads misleading, says consumer watchdog

A UK consumer group has called on broadband companies and advertising watchdogs to curb what it says is mis-selling by telecom operators, who advertisie speeds that most customers will never be able to get.

Consumer watchdog Which? says that if a broadband company wants to advertise its service as being 'up to' a certain speed, only 10 per cent of its users need to be able to actually get such fast connects.

While 88 per cent of consumers rely on the speed measure to decide which provider they go with, only 12 per cent realise that the speed being advertised could only apply to a small number of customers.

A quarter of customers would have chosen a different provider if they had known more about their broadband speed, and people thought it around three times more important when presented with information about the speed 90 per cent of people got, rather than 10 per cent.

These findings may or may not seem relevant to India, where supposedly broadband speeds are among the lowest in the world, while spectrum prices are among the highest.

Vodafone India, the Indian arm of the UK telecom services major, has often complained about this, (See: Difficult to work in India with low spectrum, high prices: Vodafone).

Which? recommended that companies be asked to quantify claims such as 'superfast', and to be clear about how many customers would receive the speed advertised.

''We want advertising watchdogs to pull the plug on confusing adverts and ensure broadband providers show the speeds the majority of customers will actually get,'' said Richard Lloyd, executive director at Which?.

The watchdog previously called on broadband providers to provide more information and improve their service, after finding that 63% of people experience problems with their broadband.