Broadband firms ordered to cut advertised speeds amid flawed claims

 Broadband providers have dramatically cut their advertised speeds following a recent rule change to prevent misleading claims.

Analysis of the UK’S biggest broadband providers by Which? found that 11 have had to cut the advertised speed of some of their deals since the new rules came into effect in May, with the cheapest deals dropping by an average 41 per cent.

The move has forced a number of providers to admit that they offer 10 Mbps or 11 Mbps, which is widely considered as the slowest acceptable speed for home internet.

These include BT, EE, John Lewis Broadband, Plusnet, Sky, Zen Internet, Post Office, SSE, Talktalk and Utility Warehouse. Previously, all advertised their standard broadband deals as “up to 17Mbps”, around a third higher.

Only Virgin Media’s advertised speeds had gone up since the change.

Under the new tougher rules, home broadband providers must now ensure that at least 50 per cent of their customers can achieve advertised speeds during peak times.

They had previously been allowed to advertise “up to” speeds as long as they were available to a minimum of just 10 per cent of customers, and Which? found evidence that British households were paying for broadband services that were on average 51 per cent slower than advertised.

Alex Neill, Which? managing director of home services, said: “Customers will now have a much clearer idea of the speeds that can be achieved when they are shopping around for broadband.”