Anyone who has broadband and knows a little something about broadband speed could tell you that broadband companies fairy tales of super-fast broadband speeds are rubbish. Well Ofcom have released a study that shows that the advertisers may be ‘misleading’. Well durrr!
The Study from Ofcom shows that broadband firms currently advertise the maximum possible speeds achievable in their ads. The likelihood is though that you would never be able to achieve these speeds. If you average out the speeds that the main broadband firms in the UK advertise, it comes to just short of 14 Mbps. The UK average ACTUAL broadband speed is 6.8 Mbps, around half the speed of what is currently being advertised. (source)
The reason Ofcom have got so upset about this is that the maximum speeds that are being advertised are practically unachievable by the vast majority of the homes, which means the advertisements for super-fast broadband are misleading. Wait a minute, you mean that the advertisements we see on TV exaggerate the truth? Shock! This actually means nothing to the British public. Anyone with the technical knowledge to actually care about the speed of the broadband will know what the actual speed is before signing up. Everyone else will just choose the cheapest as all they are bothered about is checking their Facebook, shopping on Amazon and sending emails.
One viable thing to come from Ofcom’s study is that Next Generation Broadband (NGB) services currently being offered to more and more homes in the UK are significantly faster than the current services. This is good news for anyone streaming HD videos online or downloading the whole Beatles back catalogue.