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posted by janrinok on Tuesday August 07 2018, @06:34PM   Printer-friendly
from the s-l-o-w-e-r dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Only one of top 12 ISPs raised listed speed after new truth-in-advertising rule.

Source: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/08/isps-listed-speeds-drop-up-to-41-after-uk-requires-accurate-advertising/

Most broadband providers in the UK "have been forced to cut the headline speeds they advertise when selling deals" because of new UK rules requiring accurate speed claims, according to a consumer advocacy group.

"Eleven major suppliers have had to cut the advertised speed of some of their deals, with the cheapest deals dropping by 41 percent," the group wrote last week.

The analysis was conducted by Which?, a brand name used by the Consumers' Association, a UK-based charity that does product research and advocacy on behalf of consumers.

"BT, EE, John Lewis Broadband, Plusnet, Sky, Zen Internet, Post Office, SSE, TalkTalk, and Utility Warehouse previously advertised their standard (ADSL) broadband deals as 'up to 17Mbps,'" the group noted in its announcement on Saturday. "The new advertised speed is now more than a third lower at 10Mbps or 11Mbps."

"TalkTalk has completely dropped advertising speed claims from most of its deals," the consumer group also said. "Vodafone has also changed the name of some of its deals: Fibre 38 and Fibre 76 are now Superfast 1 and Superfast 2."

The new rules were implemented in May by the Committees of Advertising Practice, the UK ad industry's self-regulatory body. Which? said it had been "campaigning for an advertising change since 2013."

Previously, ISPs were allowed to advertise broadband speeds of "up to" a certain amount, even if only one in 10 customers could ever get those speeds, Which? wrote. "But the new advertising rules mean that at least half of customers must now be able to get an advertised average speed, even during peak times (8-10pm)," the group said.

The entry-level speed tiers were apparently the least accurate before the rule change. While advertised speeds dropped the most on entry-level tiers, there were drops in higher-speed tiers as well.


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  • (Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 07 2018, @07:24PM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 07 2018, @07:24PM (#718396)

    It shouldn't be surprising to people that their rates fluctuate.

    This is all just virtue signalling. The Market was defrauded, anyway; ultimately, a user can either watch his videos or he can't, and he's either satisfied with what he's paying or he's not. The Government's "new" rule is utterly superfluous.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 07 2018, @07:26PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 07 2018, @07:26PM (#718398)

    Sorry for the omission.

  • (Score: 2) by archfeld on Wednesday August 08 2018, @12:31AM (4 children)

    by archfeld (4650) <treboreel@live.com> on Wednesday August 08 2018, @12:31AM (#718538) Journal

    As a US citizen I am envious as hell of the UK's truth in advertising laws and rules. Here in the US we see cars rail surfing and jumping bridges like they were speed buggy. The ISP's advertise the highest speed attainable as their general product speed. For example here in Yuma Spectrum advertises starting at 60 Mbps and up to Gbps, when in fact 25 Mbps is the average and at NO place in Yuma can you get Spectrum Gbps service. In the US you can say literally anything in an ad, and then disclaim it in nano print at the bottom, or even refer to a web page that is filled with disclaimers and can even refute the entire claim you made during the ad. Unlimited minutes and data rate are another pet peeve of mine. There is no such thing as unlimited service, there is an inherent limit based on the bandwidth and the number of seconds in a month. Not to mention the caps that are enforced on the 'unlimited' plans. They even go so far as to offer 3 different levels of 'unlimited' service while all of them are in fact capped at some level or other.

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 08 2018, @01:11AM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 08 2018, @01:11AM (#718552)

      The market does its job: Everyone knows that it's bullshit, so it doesn't matter.

      Those who don't know don't care. Does my video load? Yes. OK.

      • (Score: 2) by archfeld on Wednesday August 08 2018, @01:33AM (2 children)

        by archfeld (4650) <treboreel@live.com> on Wednesday August 08 2018, @01:33AM (#718561) Journal

        Tell that to a 5-9 year old and see how much they know of it or believe. They think the dolls dance, speak and do all the crap that is 'shown' on TV. The advertisers market directly to the children and show things the products can't do.

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        • (Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 08 2018, @02:51AM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 08 2018, @02:51AM (#718617)

          Are you parents as stupid as your children or something?

          "No."

          Saying that word is the distillation of good parenting.

          • (Score: 2) by archfeld on Wednesday August 08 2018, @04:11AM

            by archfeld (4650) <treboreel@live.com> on Wednesday August 08 2018, @04:11AM (#718643) Journal

            No of course not, but should we order society around advertisers who purposefully lie and mislead in order to make an almighty $$$. I have to say no to that as well. I have to respond with the following as well, the ignorant can be educated, stupid is forever. All children start as ignorant and learn as they grow older, only some of them turn out to be stupid. Check in the mirror and tell me which one is gazing back at you...

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            For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday August 08 2018, @09:16AM

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Wednesday August 08 2018, @09:16AM (#718713) Homepage
    Not only is the new rule superfluous, the previous rule that effectively said "you may lie using misleading weasel wording" should be removed.

    If companies only want to hand-wavey-guarantee an average speed, then it should advertise the average speed. So I'm glad the end result is where it is, but it should have been attainable using 0 laws, not 2.
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