Total Pageviews

Wednesday, March 02, 2011

UPDATE: Ofcom spins but does almost nothing again? Not maximum, not minimum, but 'typical' speeds

I have been shouting from the sidelines that the APCOMM 2009 report should be followed, and broadband providers forced to reveal minimum speeds based on backhaul to the exchange divided by customer numbers in the exchange - simples. Its a step too far for Ofcom, but they do want to stop blatant lying by ADSL providers (cable is ok).
Is this really any different to their research and advice published in July 2010,  or just more public relatinos spin with no action? Note that this is by no means a direction to ISPs, just evidence to the advertising regulator. The announcement made it look as if Ofcom was waving a stick, not a carrot, and it remains to be seen which it is.
I will be interested to see whether there is any real attempt to enforce this, but Claudio has always been on the side of the angels:
"The Advertising Standards Authority is looking into the issue. Ofcom is recommending that ISPs use Typical Speed Rates (TSR) to avoid confusing consumers. It has set guidelines for these speeds. It recommends that ADSL services currently advertised as 'up to' 20Mbps (megabits per second) be changed to a TSR of between 3 and 9Mbps."

No comments: