I realise that the idea of advertisers lying to us consumers comes as a big surprise but, according to Which? Online, there is a huge gap between advertised broadband speeds and those you actually get. In as survey of 300 people that signed up for 8Mbps broadband, the average speed came out as 2.7Mbps. The maximum speed reported was 6.7Mbps while the slowest speed was just 0.09Mbps, which is as close to dead as broadband can get. Which? Online Editor Malcolm Coles said:
"It’s shocking that Internet service providers can advertise ever-increasing speeds that seem to bear little resemblance to what most people can achieve in reality. If it’s unlikely you’ll reach the advertised speed it should be made clear up front, so that you know with some certainty what you’re buying. Do your research to check what speed you’re likely to get before upgrading, and if you think what you’re getting differs vastly from what you’ve paid for, speak to your provider – or if they won’t help, report them to Ofcom."
