Service Promises Are Needed By ISPS, Enforced By OFCOM!
@ Dave
I totally agree, all ISPs should be forced to have 'Service Guarantees' which will give the consumer a bracket that the advertised speed MUST fall within 95% of the time. These should be regardless of distance from exchange, contention ratio, or other factors or simply whats advertised by cable...
Example, If ISPS advertise 'Up to' speeds, the guaranteed speed brackets should be within 512k for all speeds advertised below 10MB. Examples:
2MB (between 1.5MB-2MB 95% of time)
4MB (between 3.5MB-4MB 95% of time)
8MB (between 7.5MB-8MB 95% of time)
10MB (between 9,5MB-10MB 95% of time)
Anything between 11MB - 20MB should be within 1MB, examples:
16MB (no lower than 15MB 95% of the time)
20MB (no lower than 19MB 95% of the time)
Anything above 21MB should be within 2MB of the advertised 'up to speeds'
24MB (no lower than 22MB 95% of the time)
50MB (no lower than 48MB 95% of the time)
If companies do not offer the advertised speeds, they should be forced to:
1. Change the 'upto' advertised speed for that plan to bring it inline with guarantees.
2. Offer 50% reduction of the paid monthly cost of the package for each month 95% is not met.
3. Give customers the option to cancel any contracts as service promises are not being met.
ONLY THEN WILL THIS GIVE CONSUMERS CONFIDENCE, AND FORCE ISPS TO ADVERTISE THE CORRECT 'UP TO' SPEEDS WITHOUT THE BULL WHEN AS THE REGISTER AND REVIEWS HAVE POINTED OUT:
"Separately today, research showed that among "up to 8Mbit/s" providers, Sky's LLU network delivers the highest median average download speed at 3.1Mbit/s"
"Virgin Media took the fastest consumer broadband available crown, with its "up to" 20Mbit/s cable package delivering median 7.3Mbit/s, ahead of O2-owned Be's 5.2Mbit/s ADSL2+ service."
AS THIS PROVES SPEEDS ARE NO WHERE NEAR THOSE ADVERTISED!!
OFCOM NEED TO GET ONTO THIS NOW INSTEAD OF DOING SOD ALL...