British broadband a scandle
Published August 27th, 2006
The state of Britain’s broadband internet is “scandalous” and “impossible”, say leading media commentators. They insist it is a delinquent industry full of half truths, broken promises and strong-arm tactics. Products are described as “free” when they are not, “unlimited” when they are not and “high-speed” when they are far from it.
Of half a dozen internet service providers (ISPs) tested in the evening peak during July and August, none came close to delivering the new target for high-speed internet — 8 megs (the informal abbreviation for Mbps, the unit by which the transfer of broadband data across a phone line is measured). The highest speed achieved was 2.52 megs.
The rot set in last April, when broadband began being advertised at “up to” 8 megs. Since then, barrow-boy barking and vaguely worded contracts have masked poor performance. Spivvish offers make comparing tariffs meaningless — an outrage when most service providers handcuff customers to contracts of 12 or even 18 months.
Full story at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2103-2330140_1,00.html
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