Another day another report which suggests that the UK broadband market is a not quite as fast as advertised!

Advice site Broadband Expert has issued the results of their recent speed test survey which shows that on average UK broadband users are only receiving 48% of the speeds which are advertised. While this damning report will send shock waves through the broadband industry it is not the first time that ISPs have been accused of being economical with the truth. So what is happening?

The problem with broadband speeds is the fact that the further away you are from the exchange, the slower the service becomes. As yet there is no way around this, but the ISPs and telecom companies are working on ways to improve the “last mile” connections. So until then it is vital that you check the speeds you can “expect” before signing up to a new service.

So what are the regulators doing about this potential mis-selling scandal?

While the regulators have given many of the ISPs a rap over the knuckles and asked them to be more open with regards to speeds customers can expect, they are not actually doing anything illegal. The services which many provide state that the top speeds are xMB per second and while many customers may not reach that level, there are some who will.

The broadband industry in the UK has shown great growth over the last few years and while these type of reports will put the consumer on “the back foot” a little, there is no doubt that progress is being made. Delivery systems are being improved, services are much better than only a couple of years ago and the potential is there for more vast improvements.

It will be interesting to see how the ISPs react to this particular report and how they conduct themselves in the future.