Watchdog demands action on slow broadband

LONDON (Reuters) - Thousands of Internet users are being short-changed by
broadband connections that are far slower than advertised, a watchdog said
on

The Consumer Panel, which advises communications regulator Ofcom, said there
was widespread discontent among computer users that broadband can be
frustratingly slow.
Full story at:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/200712...fa6b408_4.html
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Enzo wrote:

> LONDON (Reuters) - Thousands of Internet users are being short-changed by
> broadband connections that are far slower than advertised, a watchdog said
> on
>
> The Consumer Panel, which advises communications regulator Ofcom, said there
> was widespread discontent among computer users that broadband can be
> frustratingly slow.
> Full story at:
> http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/200712...fa6b408_4.html

It's easy to fix.

Just use a good ISP.

Graham

"Enzo" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:fkb1kv$3g7$(E-Mail Removed)...
> LONDON (Reuters) - Thousands of Internet users are being short-changed by
> broadband connections that are far slower than advertised, a watchdog said
> on
>
> The Consumer Panel, which advises communications regulator Ofcom, said
> there was widespread discontent among computer users that broadband can be
> frustratingly slow.
> Full story at:
> http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/200712...fa6b408_4.html
> --
>
> _____ __
> / __(_) /
> _\ \/ / / |/ /
> /___/_/_/
>

What we need is all these government depts (OFCOM, ASA, etc) to sing from
the same hymn sheet and remove the "upto" clause from advertising.

"Eeyore" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> It's easy to fix.
>
> Just use a good ISP.
>
> Graham
>

not for those of us some distance from the exchange 'up to' is still about
as honest as they can get, with an 'expected speed' given before signup.
watchdog /ofcom etc. should really be looking at 'unlimited' and poorly
explained shaping FUPs etc, which is where the dishonesty is, and ensuring
isps have the backhaul sufficient to service their clients

Getting a good ISP does enable us to make the best of the available
connection though, but without moving house i'm not going to get much better
than i have now until llu or 21cn arrive at my exchange (llu has arrived,
talktalk/cpw + aol, so i'll pass for now)

"ABC" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:fkbb4l$l2$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> What we need is all these government depts (OFCOM, ASA, etc) to sing from
> the same hymn sheet and remove the "upto" clause from advertising.
>

and replace with what? if you live close to the exchange you may get about
8meg (7150 + overheads), if 5 miles away you may get 512k, both with the
same provider. ISPs should be forced to give reasonable expectation of
achievable speed before signup, which they can do once they have your phone
number, and should publish figures showing what % of subscribeers reach fit
which profile, but as front of house advetising goes, 'up to' is as honest
as saying 256k - 8meg. I do think the major isps are laughing at this debate
while they get away with throttling, capping and anything else their often
unpublished FUP will let them do, things that ofcom can do something
worthwhile about. the only isp which joined in with the gadget show was
fast4.net, whose pages give me no indication of speed i would expect except
"blisteringly fast Internet connection - up to 180 times faster than your
standard dial-up product!", so that will be 'up to' 8 meg then!

just a bit of searching, fast user comments
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/review/ce...ils&itemid=279

so the advertising on channel 4 will drag more lambs to the slaughter,
entirely missing the point that no matter how fast you connect, your isp can
still stuff you making the connection useless.

tony h <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
: same provider. ISPs should be forced to give reasonable expectation of
: achievable speed before signup, which they can do once they have your phone
: number, and should publish figures showing what % of subscribeers reach fit
: which profile,

Would that help? Before ADSL Max BT said that, as I was too far from the
Exchange, I *might* get 1Mb and would *not* get 2Mb.

So I WAS told some facts then. The fact that I am getting >6Mb currently
with Sky's LLU service leads me to believe that ANY predictions will be
close to useless! Especially as internal extension wiring can have a major
effect on ADSL - I improved my speed a lot by looking at the results from
the test socket and then performing tricks like removing the "ring" wire
from my extensions - hardly a thing that any ISP/OFCOM could sensibly
suggest!

On 19/12/2007 15:06, tony h wrote:

> llu has arrived, talktalk/cpw + aol

You obviously realise talktalk=cpw, but it's not clear whether you
realise that aol=cpw too.

"Brian McIlwrath" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:fkbfv1$2lr$(E-Mail Removed)...
> tony h <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> : same provider. ISPs should be forced to give reasonable expectation of
> : achievable speed before signup, which they can do once they have your
> phone
> : number, and should publish figures showing what % of subscribeers reach
> fit
> : which profile,
>
> Would that help? Before ADSL Max BT said that, as I was too far from the
> Exchange, I *might* get 1Mb and would *not* get 2Mb.
>
> So I WAS told some facts then. The fact that I am getting >6Mb currently
> with Sky's LLU service leads me to believe that ANY predictions will be
> close to useless! Especially as internal extension wiring can have a major
> effect on ADSL - I improved my speed a lot by looking at the results from
> the test socket and then performing tricks like removing the "ring" wire
> from my extensions - hardly a thing that any ISP/OFCOM could sensibly
> suggest!

afaik sky's llu product is sold as 'up to 16meg' (adsl2) and uses different
equipment in the exchange to BTw products which the majority of isps sell,
so if BTw (or reseller) said you could expect 1 meg then that was most
likely correct staying with their equipment. a bit like going to a ford
dealership and being told that a car they sell can go at 120mph, then going
to ferrari and getting a different type of car going 200mph and calling ford
liars, different products, different speeds.
there are always ways for those with a bit of nouse to improve their
speed/stability on any product, but for the majority a 'you should get x
meg' from samknows or similar should be reasonably accurate.

tony h <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

: afaik sky's llu product is sold as 'up to 16meg' (adsl2) and uses different
: equipment in the exchange to BTw products which the majority of isps sell,

No! I should have said that I am now on Sky's "Mid" product - which is also
"up to 8Mb" (but on their own equipment). My downstream attenuation
(46dB) is, I am led to believe, too high for the 16meg ADSL2 "Max" product.

Previously I was on BT ADSLMax with "Sky Connect" (until they installed LLU).
That was the one I increased to ~4.5Mb (from ~3) by working on the house
wiring.