New Rights For Web Users With Slow Broadband

[Martin_D]

Customers who receive unacceptable broadband speeds from internet service providers will be allowed to leave their contracts early, Ofcom will announce later today.

http://news.sky.com/story/1499960/ne...slow-broadband

[qasdfdsaq]

Except, when most alternative providers are going to be just as slow (on xDSL) it doesn't really help

[ianch99]

Do you know what they deem "unacceptable" is?

[qasdfdsaq]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-33083056

When a customer signs up to a deal, an ISP must give a range of speeds a customer can expect - for instance 20 to 40 megabits per second.

However, there is an additional measurement the companies refer to less often: the minimum guaranteed access line speed (MGALS).

This represents the fastest download speed delivered to the slowest 10% of customers on a similar service.

For example, there might be 10,000 homes based 4km (2.5 miles) away from the local telephone exchange.

If the fastest speed achieved by any of those in the 1,000 slowest properties was 7Mbps, that would represent the MGALS.

Until now, users could abandon their broadband contract without penalty within 90 days of its start if their home fell below the MGALS.

Under the revised code of practice, they can do so at any time, so long as they have given the provider a "reasonable" opportunity to fix the problem - for example a few weeks of time and access to their building.

[ianch99]

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-33083056

Is an ISP obligated to publish the MGALS for your area/tier at particular time of day? Seems something that might be easily fudged

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by ianch99

Is an ISP obligated to publish the MGALS for your area/tier at particular time of day? Seems something that might be easily fudged

Not sure. The BBC page does state it may be a challenge for users to know if they're actually under the MGALS or not, but provides no explanation as to who even knows the figure let alone how a customer gets access to it.

Also not sure if it'll be based on national averages or that user's specific exchange. It's probably in the OFCOM paper somewhere but I've not had time to read it yet.

[alanbjames]

I wonder if my friend should do this on her so called upto 24mb ADSL2 with BT.

She gets around 0.6mb and BT have stated thats all her line is capable of even tho she has been as high as 14mb in the past.

Surely a provider (Sky for example) will have exactly the same speed as say Talk Talk because they both use the same lines ,the only option is a move to Virgin ,am I right or wrong in this assumption.

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by martyh

Surely a provider (Sky for example) will have exactly the same speed as say Talk Talk because they both use the same lines ,the only option is a move to Virgin ,am I right or wrong in this assumption.

No.

"If you switch and the new provider is using the same technology as the previous one, and the slow speeds are due to the line, then you may just carry on having the same issue."

There are quite a few areas where BT still run ADSL1 whereas other providers have ADSL2+ available. And then there's congestion and traffic shaping.

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

No.

There are quite a few areas where BT still run ADSL1 whereas other providers have ADSL2+ available. And then there's congestion and traffic shaping.

Ah gotcha , thanks

[Hom3r]

I thought I was on 152Meg, but I get 169meg so no problems here.

[alferret]

We have spent the last 8 days on BT out in the backwoods of north Norfolk. At best we have achieved 0.72 down and 0.65 up but that's at 6am or midnight. Our average during normal waking hours has been 0.35 down and 0.45 up.
We took an Amazon fire TV box with us but only once did it lock onto the server and it streamed for about 30 seconds.
For the life of me I don't know how BT and other copper wire providers have the audacity to charge these subscribers full price for substandard speeds that I havn't seen since 98.
It's about time people are given the chance to leave their contracts due to poor "a hell of a lot less" than advertised speeds. Our host is paying £20 pm + line rental for this crap.

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by alferret

It's about time people are given the chance to leave their contracts due to poor "a hell of a lot less" than advertised speeds. Our host is paying £20 pm + line rental for this crap.

And where exactly would you move to instead?