Communications provider Entanet has warned that Sky Broadband’s recent decision to stop selling broadband to customers with a Minimum Access Line Speed (MALS) of 2Mbps or less (here) is “bad news for consumers” and could end up “stretching the digital divide instead of closing it.”
Sky’s surprise policy change was quietly implemented on 13th December 2016, just before they adopted “average speeds” into their broadband advertising and it would have gone unnoticed for a lot longer had one of our sources not pointed me in the right direction.
In Sky’s view those who suffer speeds of 2Mbps or less on ADSL lines will encounter a poor broadband experience (e.g. trouble streaming video) and apparently that’s reason enough not to sell to them. The ISP will at least offer an alternative FTTC (VDSL2) based “fibre broadband” connection to related areas if it’s available, but FTTC coverage is not universal and many rural areas will be left out.
Entanet’s Head of Marketing, Darren Farnden, suggests that Sky’s move is akin to “cherry picking” which customers they want to supply and thus refusing those that would negatively affect their average speed calculations (blog). Darren warns that this will reduce consumer choice in the market and lead to an “increased digital divide.”
Darren Farnden said:
“At a time when the Government is attempting to bridge the gap and plug the holes across the UK to ensure everyone can achieve a decent Internet service, Sky seem to be putting a proverbial spanner in the works. The Government is working to ensure a minimum speed of at least 10Mbps for all, yet Sky are clearly shunning any users that can’t even get 2Mbps – hardly helpful!
Of greater concern to us is that where Sky lead others may follow, which will leave consumers already struggling to obtain any level of decent service hamstrung even further through an increasingly restricted choice of providers, stretching the digital divide instead of closing it. Let’s hope not!
On the flip side, it’s good to see more compliance from the larger providers and a commitment to adopting advertising approaches that are clear and provide potentially more accurate speed information, it’s just a shame they are so keen to protect that ‘average speed’ they are willing to exclude some customers from receiving a service at all. “
The assumption here is that Sky will be able to present a stronger average speed to potential subscribers (i.e. by rejecting slower broadband lines from their service). However initially we suspect that this won’t have much of an immediate impact, not unless they decided to throw existing customers with sub-2Mbps lines off their service and there’s currently no sign of that happening.
At present Sky is the only major ISP to adopt this practice, although that might change once the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) unveil their new rules for tackling how broadband speeds are advertised (expected soon). We don’t know precisely what approach they will adopt but the smart money seems to be pointing towards something similar to Sky’s “average speeds“.
Right now there are no firm rules to stop Sky acting against potential broadband subscribers in this way, although if other ISPs were to follow then that would perhaps be a signal for Ofcom to take a closer look. As Entanet says, those in digitally disadvantaged areas already have enough problems with broadband performance to worry about without having ISPs reject their orders too.
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