Vodafone has today confirmed that they’ve officially become members of Ofcom’s voluntary Code of Practice for broadband ISP speeds (details), which helps to protect customers from bad advertising and guarantees “accurate minimum and maximum download speeds“. Took them long enough.
Under the code, new and upgrading customers to Vodafone’s fixed line broadband service will now be able to view online the “actual speeds they can expect, not just theoretical ones” during the order process. Customers are then free to leave their contract, without penalty, if the minimum guaranteed download speed (MGALS) is not achieved after 28 days from notifying Vodafone.
However, strictly speaking, what the ISP shows you is still an estimate and the results look a bit like this (see example below).
Estimated Line Speed Example for Vodafone’s Fibre Package
Great, you can get our Unlimited Fibre 76
Estimated download speed range*
73.32Mbps to 76MbpsMinimum guaranteed download speed**
67.73MbpsEstimated upload speed range*
20Mbps to 20Mbps* The speed range shown is an estimate of the range of download and upload speeds we think your broadband service will deliver.
** The minimum guaranteed speed shown is the slowest speed we think your line will achieve. For information on how to measure your broadband speed, and what to do if it’s below the minimum guaranteed speed, please click here.
However Vodafone has decided to go one further than the code and promised that they would also provide “details of upload speeds” (see example above).
Glafkos Persianis, Vodafone UK’s Commercial Director, said:
“Having allowed customers to break free from broadband line rentals and try out our mobile network, we are now giving them greater transparency on home broadband speeds.
Since we entered the market just over a year ago, we have pledged to make a difference by scrapping the out dated and often misleading practices, which have plagued this market. The days of promising theoretical “up to” speeds are over – if a customer does not receive the speeds that they were promised, we will try to fix that, and if that does not work then they are free to leave, no questions asked.”
At the time of writing it’s worth noting that the only ISPs which have fully signed-up to and implemented the updated (2015) code are BT, Sky Broadband, Virgin Media, KCOM, EE, TalkTalk and Zen Internet.
Meanwhile Hyperoptic, Plusnet, InTouch Systems and The Co-op are still listed as intending to sign-up in the future.. someday, maybe. Sadly pretty much all of the other smaller ISPs have chosen to steer clear.
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