AOL, ever a representative of the online mainstream, has brought to the forefront a question that has lingered over broadband ever since the word came into use.
That is: how fast is broadband exactly?
Faster than dial-up, sure, but that leaves plenty of room for interpretation. In practice, it has meant internet service as slow as 150Kbps to 6Mbps and upwards (though 512Kbps is probably the more widely recognised lower limit).
AOL has been reprimanded for advertising a 1Mbps service when it couldn't deliver that speed all the time.
The online company defended itself by saying the speed was achievable in the best of circumstances but that wasn't good enough for the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
AOL now uses the phrase "up to 1Mbps" in its advertising.
Due to the vagaries of networking, it's difficult for even the best-intentioned providers to know exactly how fast a customer's internet service will be. It depends on the time of day, the specifications of a customer's PC and the distance a residence is from the provider's exchange point, among other factors.
But it's precisely because it is a confusing issue that providers need to be as explicit as possible in communicating with customers about what they can expect.
Otherwise, it's not only false advertising but also poor business practice. Isn't the first rule of keeping customers happy to deliver on promises?
Many people, especially the less technical, won't know their precise upload and download speeds at any given time. But they're still likely to get peeved if they're paying out each month but not able to do the things they want - such as watch a video feed or download a large application in a matter of minutes rather than hours.
And a peeved customer is a customer that's likely to switch providers or give up on broadband altogether - neither good outcomes for anyone in the business.
Comments
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1. anonymous
Several times I have contacted NTL and asked them what their "Upload & Download" speeds are, and each time I get pointed to their broadband sales pitch page on their web site which only gives one speed which is the download speed and this is a strange value. Trying to get the upload speed from them is like trying to get blood out of a stone.
2. Simon Martin
What does a 1Gb per month limit mean ?
To most end users they have no idea of how much they download each month and it varies month by month anyway. What is needed is a zero cost mechanism which traps the data quantity each time you dial up over a period of time and then gives you monthly totals. Otherwise people have no real chance of subscribing to the 'right' broadband product for them.
3. royston
i agree with the above post except i,m with tiscali, yes they do provide a program on instalation wich measures your upload speed and your download speed,the download speed is often above the 512kbps but the upload is abysmal,it varies from 28kbps to 128kbps more often than not down at the lower end.which is a nuiscence when you send to someone.people on cable keep saying to me "i thought you was on broadband". i had terrible problems with tiscali but after they built this new call centre in uk. it was all sorted out except for this infernal slowish upload speed for most of the time.in the uk you definitly dont get what you pay for. why isnt it being sorted and if it is how come the isp's arent being seen to be doing it. they give us faster speeds and then take it out of you by capping what you can do with it to rediculous limits.if i had a capped service i would be scared to death that i would accidently go over it or had to stop useing it for half the month because i,ve started to "grow" my bill per meg.xpsp2 is a large download are we to be charged for soaking up the megs just to keep our pc's safe.what happens if my pc has to be rebooted(never mind cd backups)or its a new pc or i have bought a new network for my home, i would eat my quota just getting everything up and running(critical updates etc)and then i,d be unable to use it.give us the speed and uncapp it.......if an isp hasnt got the bandwidth they shouldnt supply the speed and say they can promise to deliver it(aol's recent advertiseing mistakes prove that one)