http://www.adslguide.org.uk/newsarchive.asp?item=2718
Broadband providers are now a regular feature for the ASA, and this week
sees Tiscali under the microscope following complaints from some subscribers
to the service who believed the adverts were misleading, as the they thought
Tiscali could not provide the full 1Mbps or 2Mbps services.
The complaints were not uphold, but does make for interesting reading into
how this decision was arrived at. To read the adjudication visit
www.asa.org.uk.
Tiscali told the ASA it did not monitor downloads because it thought it was
impractical and not common industry practice. Whether this is a common thing
is hard to say, we know some providers do take a keen interest in the speeds
their customers see, and some do look at the speed test data we can supply
from our site. How Tiscali supported its advertising was to supply three
random tests that showed customers can get close to the theoretical maximum
speed, and looking at the Tiscali customers who have used our speed tester
we would agree, it is possible to get close to the 1Mbps or 2Mbps speeds
depending on your product. This means that Tiscali is not advertising in a
false manner, but we suspect that what the consumer is really interested in
is what the sort of speeds they will get at the times of day they use the
connection. With some providers the difference between peak time speeds and
the quietest times can be significant, and as line speeds increase this gap
appears to be opening up more.
One interesting phrase that we hope is a gross simplification, was used at
the start of the adjudication "Tiscali UK (Tiscali) said their residential
broadband service was a contended service; customers shared the 1Mb and 2Mb
bandwidths". This could be taken to mean that a number of 1Mbps customers
actually share a single 1Mbps sized connection from the exchange out to the
Internet. In normal practice, it is actually the case that customers at the
exchange are merged onto a connection that is several times larger than what
any single user could use. If Tiscali are putting customers onto pipes that
are only just big enough for one user, then contention is going to be felt
more readily than with many other providers. In general Tiscali has more
control of the contention with its products as it has traditionally being a
heavy user of the BT Datastream products which remove control of contention
from BT to the actual service provider.
One possibility for some Tiscali customers feeling they aren't getting their
full speeds, is that the fair usage policy for their 'unlimited' service has
come into effect. The Tiscali fair use policy is one with no specified
figures, so people will find it difficult to know whether the slower speeds
are down to the policy or other factors. In theory if the policy is working
as it is worded, only a small number should be affected, but in practice it
would seem that consumers who perhaps have one really big day of downloading
in a month, can get penalised due to the daily assessment nature of the
Tiscali system.
Perhaps all providers should reconsider how they advertise broadband, and
give customers some actual idea of the differences in speed you can get over
the course of a day, and base this on actual data. Managing expectation is
something that needs to be addressed, and with the mass of advertising for
up to 8Mbps products the scope for dissappointed customers is very large.
Some press releases and adverts make it sound like the up to 8Mbps products
are some new super technology, whereas in reality it is the same old ADSL,
just with more freedom to try and run at faster speeds.
--
"Off all the things I lost, I miss my mind the most."
~ Ozzy Osbourne
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