Broadband advertising rules really are a mess – and this time even the politicians agree

A coalition of more than 50 cross-party MPs have called for a long-overdue reform in the way that broadband packages are allowed to be advertised in the UK.

The British Infrastructure Group (BIG) – the same one that called for a split of BT earlier this year – says that greater powers are required to keep ISPs in check when it comes to advertising real-world broadband speeds and package options, according to the BBC.

At its core is the problem that it can still be a tedious and expensive process to leave your provider if a service doesn’t live up to expectations; a situation in which consumers have “very few rights and protections,” the group says.

Of course, UK broadband providers failing to advertise packages accurately is a long-standing problem – for more than 15 years, ISPs have repeatedly been reprimandedby the Advertising Standards Authority for inaccurate advertising.

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Under current rules, providers are upholding their advertising obligations if at least 10 percent of customers can get those speeds. That’s not a situation that, to my mind, can be considered acceptable. A more accurate way of looking at it is that 90 percent of customers never get what they pay for.

Clearly something needs to change.