The Which? consumer group has drawn the battle lines while facing off against Internet services providers. The group is now campaigning for guaranteed broadband speeds.
For a large part of the population, the Internet is more of a necessity than a luxury. While ISPs all over the world compete in a never ending battle of speed to see who offers the fastest broadband connections, consumers are growing more and more frustrated with the fact that advertised speeds hardly ever reflect on everyday usage.
A survey commissioned by the consumer group Which? has shown that approximately 45 percent of the respondents were suffering from slow broadband connections. Moreover, more than 50 percent of the respondents who complained about slow connections said they experienced problems very often, if not all of the time.
"The internet is an essential part of modern life, yet millions of us are getting frustratingly slow speeds and having to wait days to get reconnected when things go wrong," said Which? executive director Richard Lloyd. "It's less superfast broadband, more super slow service from companies who are expecting people to pay for speeds they may never get."
Which? is insisting that broadband service providers should give its customers "the speed and service they pay for." However, UK communications regulator Ofcom says that it has already put in place a number of measures including the introduction of a voluntary code of practice that could be used to govern broadband speeds. ISPs who have signed the voluntary code will need to provide its subscribers with an official estimate of the connection speeds they provide. Moreover, signatory ISPs will also allow its customers to break off their contracts if they experienced connection speeds below what was provided during the start of the contract. In such cases, the signatory ISPs will not be charging extra fees for the premature termination of a contract.
"The move towards one clear and simple system, led by the gaining provider, will result in a switching process that works in consumers' best interests," said Claudio Pollack, the consumer group director of Ofcom. "We will now be working on further measures to improve consumers' experience of switching."
While Ofcom's code seems like a step in the right direction, the fact that signing up for the code is voluntary may mean that enforcing the code of practice may be problematic in reality. Which? is pushing for a more permanent and easy to enforce solution that will force ISPs to provide connection speeds on par with what they advertise. Which? hopes that ISPs will provide the estimated speeds in writing and provide refunds for "loss of service" in cases where the consumers decide that they are not receiving the speeds they paid for.
