Virgin Media Tells ASA – Consider Homeworkers in Ads for Broadband Speed

A new survey of 2,006 UK employees, which was conducted by Virgin Media, has found that 71% of home-workers view “fast, reliable broadband” as “very important” and the cable operator warns that the ASA’s on-going review of how line speeds are advertised fails to consider this group.

The somewhat predictable Survation study claims that Home-working has increased by 25% in the last five years, with 8.2 million British employees (31% of the total) now working from home for at least one day per week, and relying on broadband. Homeworkers also said that good broadband is more essential than access to a mobile or landline telephone (54%), peace and quiet (54%), a comfortable working environment (54%), a kettle for tea and coffee (40%) or snacks (21%).

However the operator, which rarely misses an opportunity to hammer their rivals in the broadband market, has linked the survey to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and its on-going review of how broadband speeds are advertised (here).

At present the existing approach requires that any headline speed being promoted by an ISP must be achievable by at least 10% of their customers (i.e. the fastest 10th percentile) and these figures should be preceded by an “up to” qualifier, as well as an explanation of any limitations that may hamper the connection.

The ASA has proposed four potential options for improving how speeds are advertised, which put simply will require broadband providers to either advertise average (median) speeds across a full day or at “peak times” (8-10pm). Virgin Media warns that this “does not consider Britain’s 8.2 million regular homeworkers.”

In clarifying their view, Virgin says their “research suggests that any move to a peak time measure would ignore this large group of people [Homeworkers]. The top three peak times for internet use among homeworkers are 10am – 12pm (20%), 8am – 10am (18%) and 12pm – 2pm (12%). Just 3% of homeworkers are most busy working at 8pm – 10pm.”

Kerris Bright, Chief Marketing Officer at Virgin Media, said:

“More people than ever are spending some of their working week at home, and our research shows that homeworkers depend on having a good broadband connection. As it consults on more robust broadband advertising rules, the ASA must consider Britain’s growing army of homeworkers, and require companies to advertise average speeds across a full day.”

Mike Cherry, National Chairman of the FSB, added:

“A growing number of employees and the self-employed now work from home. Their continuing growth depends on strong digital connectivity, together with the ability to get the best deal. We welcome the ASA consultation to require broadband providers to state average speeds, to bring transparency and help homeworkers and the self-employed make the best choice when selecting their broadband provider.”

People who work from home will typically be online during the day when broadband speeds tend to be higher due to lighter network load, while speeds tend to drop away at peak times (evenings) when everybody returns home and starts using the Internet to stream videos or download files etc. (higher network load).

Virgin clearly desires to stick with a single measure of performance across the day (their performance dips at peak times on some packages), although the ASA’s consultation does expressly exclude “business-to-business” advertising but a lot of Homeworkers will make use of domestic connections and not true B2B packages.

Typical Broadband Speeds for May 2017 (VM’s Own Estimates)