Cable Forum - BT Infinity "Up to 38 Mb"

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BT Infinity "Up to 38 Mb"

Have you noticed that the BT web site now advertises up to 38 meg rather than up to 40 meg?

What happened there?

Re: BT Infinity "Up to 38 Mb"

Probably to bring things in line with the new advertising rules. BT may have done some kind of analysis of average speeds they provide and found it was under 40mb, so can't advertise that anymore.

Re: BT Infinity "Up to 38 Mb"

But "up to" and "average" are different. I get "up to 38 meg" literally being 300m away from the cabinet. Matey round the corner gets 39.5 meg.

So what really happened?

Re: BT Infinity "Up to 38 Mb"

Ofcom have said that in order to claim “up to speed X”, a certain percentage of users must be able to achieve X. If no one can get 40 Mbps they can’t claim this even though that is the theoretical maximum.

---------- Post added at 12:16 ---------- Previous post was at 12:06 ----------

Quote:

Ofcom recommends the following additions to the UK's Voluntary Code of Practice on Broadband Speeds:

that if speed is used in advertising it must include a 'Typical Speed Range' (TSR), which should be based on average actual speeds that the 25th to 75th percentile of customers receive (i.e. the inter-quartile range);
that this TSR must have at least equal prominence to any 'up to' claims made;
that if an 'up to' speed is used it must represent the actual speed that a materially significant proportion of customers are capable of receiving; and
that any TSR or 'up to' speed used must be based on statistically robust analysis of connection data, with the data and methodology available for scrutiny.

Taken from: arstechnica.com