Ad watchdog cracks down on broadband speed claims

Home broadband providers must now make sure at least 50 per cent of their customers can achieve advertised speeds at peak time under a crackdown to prevent misleading claims.

Until today, firms had been allowed to advertise “up to” speeds as long as they were available to a minimum of just 10 per cent of customers, resulting in widespread complaints from the UK government, consumer groups and the public.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) will start to enforce the tougher standard – that speed claims should be available to at least half of customers between 8pm and 10pm and described in ads as “average” – from today.

The ASA said the new standard would help consumers better understand what was on offer when deciding to switch providers.