UPDATE2 BBC TV Show Watchdog to Tackle Slow Broadband ISP Speeds

Tonight’s episode of BBC One’s popular consumer affairs TV show, Watchdog (Episode 2 – Series 37 @ 8pm), looks set to include a segment that will focus on broadband ISP speeds and getting “value for money“.

At this stage we don’t know much about the programme, although at the end of Episode 1 the presenter said, “broadband speeds, are you getting what you’re paying for” and a later description for the episode suggested that it would include “advice on getting value for money on broadband internet.”

It’s probably worth mentioning that the Advertising Standards Authority recently bowed to Government pressure and announced that they would examine whether the broadband speed claims made by ISPs are fair (here). At present ISPs must promote a headline speed that is achievable by 10% of their customers (i.e. the fastest 10%), although there are calls for this % to be lifted to 50% or higher (i.e. closer to an average speed).

However if the programme chooses to focus more on the “value for money” side of the fence then we hope that they will adopt a wider view, since broadband isn’t like Gas, Water or Electricity where what you receive stays the same irrespective of supplier. Taking the cheapest broadband service can often result in slower speeds, a weak router and or poor customer support.

Hopefully it will also highlight that for most premises a faster connection is often available (“superfast broadband” [24Mbps+] networks cover about 91% of UK premises and should rise to around 98% by the end of 2019), yet many people might not be aware that they can receive this or prefer to remain on an older ADSL / pure copper based broadband line that will struggle to keep up.

Of course there are exceptions, such as where some areas are officially classified as being able to receive a “superfast” connection and yet locals may suffer something far worse, which can be caused by all sorts of short or longer-term issues (e.g. poor home wiring, a full street cabinet, slow WiFi etc.).

All of this remains especially problematic for rural areas, many of which are still waiting for faster connectivity to arrive.

UPDATE 6am:

The show has revealed a few more details about tonight’s episode, which will claim that 90% of British people aren’t getting the broadband speeds that were promoted by their ISP. However it’s not clear if this is a reference to the headline speed or the speed estimate that is given by most ISPs during the customer’s order process, which is a key distinction.

Apparently the figure stemmed from a short one week survey, which asked respondents to test their broadband speed online and apparently found that most families weren’t receiving the top advertised speeds.

However a second survey of around 2,000 British Adults revealed that roughly a third had complained to their ISP about slow broadband speeds, but only one in ten of those that did complain saw an improvement in their connection performance (sometimes changing ISPs won’t make much of a difference either if it’s on Openreach’s open access network).

Elsewhere 49% noted that their broadband connection sometimes completely disconnected itself, although this sort of issue could also be caused by a router or other local device problem rather than a fault with the ISP or broadband line. We understand that the show will touch on this too and may offer a few tips to help people stay connected, such as changing router placement.

UPDATE 8:30pm

The final programme appeared to include a few classic mistakes, such as incorrectly stating that “most” of the UK could now access a “fibre optic” broadband line if they wanted. Just to drum this point home they even showed a fibre optic cable against a copper one.

Of course what they really meant by fibre optic is FTTC, which can still include a fair run of copper cable between the street cabinet and homes. Sadly FTTC is still subject to a loss of speed over distance and issues with poor home wiring etc.

On top of that they seemed to overlook the other ways of getting broadband, such as the hybrid fibre coax mix from Virgin Media, as well as wireless, satellite and mobile broadband.

Elsewhere there was quite a lot of focus on headline speeds and very little mention of the personalised speed estimates that most ISPs supply as part of the order process.

However it’s still good to see Watchdog taking on these issues, despite the mistakes.