7m homes should get cash refund for slow broadband, say MPs
NEARLY seven million households should be given refunds on their broadband bills because they are not getting the designated minimum speed, MPs said yesterday.
Their cross-party committee said 6.7million of the country’s 22million broadband connections were slower than the proposed minimum download of ten megabits per second (MBps).
Fewer than half of all connections were ‘superfast’ – above 24MBps.
MPs said this painted ‘a worrying picture for post-Brexit Britain’s competitiveness’.
The findings cast further doubt on the Government’s pledge to have superfast broadband in 95 per cent of the UK by the end of the year.
The report describes the sector as ‘characterised by self-regulation, a lack of transparency and an absence of minimum standards that fail to protect the rights of broadband customers’. Tory MP Grant Shapps, chairman of the British Infrastructure Group, said: ‘With the country leaving the EU in 20 months’ time, being ready for the global fight means having the best internet in the world. The current situation is simply not good enough.’
An Ofcom report in April this year said broadband customers were only getting around half the speed they pay for.
Scotland has the four worst performing parliamentary constituency areas in the UK for broadband speeds.
Ross, Skye and Lochaber is the worst, with only 65.6 per cent of connections reaching 10MBps, according to the British Infrastructure Group. More than 60 per cent of connections in Western Isles, Argyll and Bute and Orkney and Shetland failed to reach 10MBps.
Scotland had eight of the 20 worst performing constituencies.
In March, BT was fined £42million after it took too long to deliver superfast broadband to businesses.
The Advertising Standards Agency has called for a change in the way broadband speed claims are promoted. It found millions of customers were being ripped off by broadband providers and barely 10 per cent received the super-fast speeds promised by their suppliers.
As a result, more than 15million households get slow internet due to a loophole in which firms could advertise broadband as ‘up to’ certain speeds.
The latest report criticised the standard of customer service and complaints procedures offered by internet providers. It advocates a compensation scheme of £10 a day for loss of service and £30 for a missed appointment. It revealed that the industry claimed that an automatic compensation scheme would ‘harm market competition’.
Market leader BT received more complaints that any other provider in the first three months of this year. MPs said its compensation agreement was ‘vague, unregulated and not transparent’.
The report says: ‘Broadband is increasingly considered akin to any other utility such as water or gas.
‘However, unlike in other utilities markets, there are still no minimum standards for broadband customer services, nor regulations governing compensation payments.’
It noted that consumers consider internet essential, adding: ‘When broadband services fail, the difficulties caused can be disruptive as a power cut or loss of water supply.’
Ofcom previously found 1.4million people had download speeds below 10MBps. MPs argued the system made it ‘almost impossible’ to determine how many households did not receive the speeds set out in their contracts.
This is disputed by Ofcom, which said it provided ‘robust, comprehensive data on broadband take-up and availability’.
The report also noted that the areas that received the slowest speeds had not changed significantly over the past three years and were ‘predominantly rural’.
A spokesman for Westminster’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport said: ‘Almost 95 per cent of the UK can now get superfast broadband, but we know millions of homes and businesses have not yet chosen to upgrade.’
Broadband apartheid – Page 18
‘As disruptive as a power cut’