Infinite Path

Another hammer blow to the increasingly fragile reputation of broadband providers was dealt yesterday, as it emerged that almost half of those researched in a survey believed that they had been let down by their ISP.

The large majority of complaints revolve around connection speeds, with almost three-quarters of the sample, which was organised by broadbandchoices.co.uk, disappointed in this respect.

Perhaps surprisingly, only a relatively small proportion of those interviewed stated value for money as the most important element of broadband service, with many more solely concerned about the reliability of their connection. As with so many services, the large majority of people are willing to pay a little bit more money per month in order to receive consistency, reliability, and competence.

Unfortunately, though, this is something which broadband providers are failing to acknowledge time and time again. Deception and a complete lack of transparency unfortunately seem to characterise the words of these providers. Ofcom’s discovery that the average broadband speed in the United Kingdom for services claiming to offer speeds of up to 8Mbps is just 4.1Mbps is typical of this culture of deceit.

Broadband hit our shores nine years ago, so a reliable service should be the least that consumers can expect to receive by now.