From the 23rd May 2018 in the UK broadband service providers will not be allowed to advertise ‘up to’ speeds unless that speed is received by 50% of users at peak times!?
This is the latest attempt to placate a bewildered public in the continuing and biggest scam in recent telecommunications history. Imagine if you went to a petrol (gas) station and asked them to fill up your tank with fuel and they just gave you half a tank of fuel but charged you for a full tank?
What would you do? How would you feel?
The internet is the highway and for many of us today this broadband issue is literally stealing from each and every one of us every minute of the day and what have the regulators done?
Based on today’s statement? Absolutely nothing. According to them. Everything is awesome in broadband land
According to an independent study by Which test a consumer watchdog and testing organisation.
This is the actual level of service at least three times a day. Screenshot taken today Monday 21st May 2018.
Most people including me are getting less than half of what they are paying for and that other august body.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has demanded that the telecoms adverts must not claim these ‘up to’ speeds when they patently are not being met but it is OK if the advertised speed is received by 50% of users at peak times?
Below is a screenshot of when it is working well. Still underperforming.
Test result
This is a shambolic attempt at showing their teeth. They don’t have any and neither does the regulator Ofcom
There is another huge problem other than speed. The consistency of connection. If you are trying to run a business that relies on full time, real time data processing like stock, currency and especially cryptocurrency trading. Then you know that any loss of connection can lead to huge losses in trades.
Cryptocurrencies are possible the most volatile things you could trade and so any down time is not acceptable at all. Many 1,000's of people have been complaining about the shoddy service for many years and I even made a YouTube video about it over a year ago.
I upgraded my connection recently to ‘fibre’ broadband which is also misleading because the fibre line only goes to the junction box at the end of my street. The rest of my ‘fibre’ line is in fact copper!
Who knows if they actually put in a fibre line or just boosted the signal over the existing copper wire which is entirely possible?
This is the problem with a market dominated by a few non-competing players. (Oligopoly) The public just gets screwed by these colluding players and regulators do not exercise their powers.
Markets need to be free to compete but there are costly barriers to entry into the massive telecoms market and so there is a need in this case for a regulator.
Unfortunately for the British public we do not have a regulator who is prepared to do anything to reign in these excesses.
What we really need an alternative way of gaining internet access and there are technologies that exist that could replace these oligopolies. It is just a matter of time before the public are ready to try something like a distributed non-hierarchical mesh network
The days are numbered for the existing telecoms players but in the meantime, we are stuck with them it would seem?
My entry for today’s #marketfriday initiated by @dswigle
End rant :)
Have a great weekend folks :)
Oh, but I Love your rants!
You make a million of valid points but most of us have no idea how we are being ripped off, only knowing that we are in some way.
We have so many places around here that are free Wi-Fi that if one did not want to have it at their house so, you could get along. I exaggerate of course but wouldn't that be nice. I think it's repugnant the prices that they charge and I am getting very close to pulling my cable and my internet because the prices are not worth the crappy service.
Thanks for educating me along with a bunch of other people I am sure. Happy Market Friday my friend!
Upped and streemed
Tip!
This is why we need to move to an alternate way of accessing the web via something like a Mesh network. A Mesh network uses the signals from close by smart phones and routers and if you have enough of them then you can do away with these 'fixed wire' contracts with the big telecoms companies.
The con trick is in letting the public believe that they need a phone line into their house in order to get on the internet. This is not true at all.
As you state there are already plenty of 'free' WIFI spots around town and we just need to extend this to all of our homes. Then the signal is passed from one device to another. And then yes. We can truly cut the cable.
Some market friday post hey? lol They are usually so genteel :) tip!
I love this kind of #MarketFriday!
Our cable provider has made our entire neighborhood a "hotspot" so anyone can literally drive around and get it free.
I'm tempted to cut the cord and leech. ;)
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Most people, including me, have no idea how these things even work, so we have no idea we are being ripped off.It takes people like you to make us aware so that we can speak up. I learned a lot from this. Thanks. Resteeming.
Hi Melinda, you will find the same issue in every country including the USA. These big telecoms companies have been ripping off the public from the get go. When our businesses rely on a solid connection. We are all put at a competitive disadvantage.
I advise everyone to check their broadband speed daily of even several times a day to get the average speed and then you will see the difference between what they say they are giving you, what you actually get and more importantly, what you are paying for. tip!
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The biggest joke is that the vast majority of your data will be running over fibre optic cables at some point of its journey in any case !!
Back in the 80s when fibre optic was just coming into mainstream use, BT wanted to start upgrading all the 'local ends' and install a fibre optic directly to everyones home. Due to regulatory and competition issues, they weren't allowed to as it would prove to expensive for them to do the work and then be forced by Oftel to allow other companies to lease them from BT to sell their services to provide 'competition'.
.
You nailed it. The UK telecoms 'market' is totally fake and you are right. Fibre optic cable has been around for a very long time. The whole creation of Openreach, the network wing of British Telecom was spun off to make for a more competitive market. What a farce that was and still is.
People have been mugged into thinking that all these 'new' telecoms companies provide faster services when in fact they are using exactly the same copper lines from the box in the street to your home.
It boggles the brain that so many people have and continue to be duped?
We have the same problem here. Personally I think WIFI should be an essential service and just be supplied to everyone for free. We are moving toward that here in Vancouver. Our parks board and libraries offer free wifi and its wonderful.
I agree, web access should be seen as a utility like water and sanitation services. We get free WIFI in many places in the UK but it's not really free as they are still collecting your data and selling it on to god knows who?
That's terrifying. I would doubt this would be the case with the Parks Board here ... the are funded by public monies. I hope.
Did you read the t&c's? In some cases when you sign into these 'free' WIFI services you have to agree their terms etc. In all cases you are giving them permission to harvest your data. Sometimes the data is de-identified to build profiles of the user base.
No ... there I lack ambition. But this is Vancouver ... there are watchdogs galore.
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Thank you Kabil, if everyone began complaining en masse then they would have to improve or refund the excess charges.
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