ISPs rapped over 'misleading' 8Meg claims

TheNorm · 26-09-2006, 10:17

I saw this in Computer Shopper (http://www.computershopper.co.uk/?ne...y.php?id=94041):

Quote:

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has slammed ADSL broadband suppliers for promoting their services as 'up to 8Mbps' because many customers suffer from significantly slower speeds...

...The ruling comes following a complaint against Bulldog Communications, made by cable rival NTL. The ASA agreed that advertising services of up to 8Mbps was misleading because 'a significant proportion of consumers could not achieve speeds close to the headline speed.' ...

Those ADSL ads have always irritated me. Well done NTL!

**David F** · 26-09-2006, 10:34

about time too

v0id · 26-09-2006, 11:25

Sky'll be getting a slap on the wrist too then with their claims of 16 Meg.

orangebird · 26-09-2006, 11:49

(waits for james henry to appear...)

TheNorm · 26-09-2006, 14:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by orangebird

(waits for james henry to appear...)

Who? Do you mean the Irish classical scholar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Henry_%28poet%29)? But he died 130 years ago!

Are you suggesting that someone on this forum has links with the afterlife...?

Robster · 26-09-2006, 15:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by v0id

Sky'll be getting a slap on the wrist too then with their claims of 16 Meg.

I think that claim is probably even more misleading, as I'm guessing there are a lot more people on a BT 8meg enabled exchange than on a Sky/Easynet unbundled exchange.

brundles · 26-09-2006, 15:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robster

I think that claim is probably even more misleading, as I'm guessing there are a lot more people on a BT 8meg enabled exchange than on a Sky/Easynet unbundled exchange.

Don't even go there on the unbundling/advertising stuff. I know several people who have said they switched their phone to CPW after being assured they'd get the free broadband only to be told later on that it wasn't available because they were in an unbundled area

Chrysalis · 26-09-2006, 20:54

this is long overdue and I reckon ntl targeted bulldog since they are a weak target and it sets a precedent for all adsl providers. Their was a real danger of when BT rolled outadsl2+ on their platform that we would see advertised 24mbit speeds with people on poorest lines getting under 1mbit.

The 2 key problems with way adsl1 is sold.

1 - it only gives a max of 7.15mbit "including" tcp overheads.
2 - its dependent on line conditions, the article got BT of lightly they using 3.8km as a figure for 8mbit boundary when in truth its much lower meaning a much higher % then 35% cant get the max speeds. When they say live from exchange one would assume straight distance which makes it even worse here is a example my line.

Straight line distance 1.65km
Real line distance 2.96km
Achievable stable synch rate 4mbit.
Line attenuation 50

The reason for this is my line clearly has some poor quality cabling or joints somewhere pushing the attenuation up which BT still wont look into since they base all their diagnosis on the attenuation figure over everything else, if someone had a attenuation of 40 on a 500m line BT would probably assume the line is long and thats the reason rather then investigating it. Also my real line distance is considerably over the straight distance.

I would expect many more lines are like mine and I think its a lot more then 35% and I would say more then 50% that cant get full synchs and stable.

wyngriff · 27-09-2006, 10:16

UPTO...meg ive herd that one before, but not after 5pm lol
NTL guilty of same thing

Rone · 27-09-2006, 13:51

Cant think of any isps that havent been upto something "naughty" at some point, its about time the worst were brought into line.

Chrysalis · 27-09-2006, 23:48

wyngriff yeah but the difference is most ntl customers can get full speed at some point during the day, for adsl customers many can never hit full speed due to the line not been capable and 8mbit is impossible to reach.

m419 · 01-10-2006, 20:47

Well TalkTalk, is now giving customers the ability to opt-out of their 18 month contract if customers are unhappy.

People hear 'Free Broadband up to 8MB' on telly. People don't really get it. It means 'Broadband is free with a particular telephone package which we offer, but we cannot garuntee you an 8MB connection nor 128K connection if you live a distance from the telephone exchange. And sometimes if too many people are using the service, we cannot garuntee a service at all. Sorry.

And customers up until recently had to put up with the above policy.

wigro · 01-10-2006, 20:52

I get full speed from ntl nearly all of the time . Im on 10 meg , have had dns probs though

m419 · 02-10-2006, 13:39

Yeah well you are using cable internet which is more reliable and NTL,Telewest and White Cable are able to offer you what they promise. I think BT's network and ADSL services are quite flawed and would avoid as much as possible.

I think Cable and Wireless offers ADSL internet services over its Mercury/Energis telephone network to its business customers, that might be much better than what BT offers.

Rone · 02-10-2006, 15:25

Well Cable and Wireless did own Bulldog [now Pipex] and i must admit to getting 8 meg every day through their adsl.
The service however is terrible, customer service is non existent, and loss of phone and BB were frequent.
Basically it was crap.