The ISP industry only has itself to blame for its bad reputation – Guest Editorial

They show a thorough lack of understanding of the basics of the maths involved. By definition unless every connection is identical there will always be a spread (based on distance dependence) from those with the slowest, to those with the fastest. Do the lowest ten percent of the customer base deserve to have a right to leave with no recourse just because their location means they get the slowest speeds?

Let’s be clear here, they will get the same connection speed with any other ISP offering the same technology (I’m talking sync speed here – for now I’m discounting badly run networks without enough bandwidth to satisfy their customers). This customer can now move freely around the ISP industry, costing money as they go, by always being in the bottom 10% of connections. Is that fair, either to the providers, or in fact to the customer, by somehow enshrining in law (regulation) that they have a right to leave, precisely because they should be able to get a better connection elsewhere… when they physically can’t.

Fibre – we’re still repeating the same mistakes

“Fibre” – this is obviously a biggie. Legal avenues are still being pursued by those newer ISPs that have shunned copper entirely – rightly stating that you need to be able to differentiate the technologies and that appropriating the word “fibre” to somehow convey quality and performance, is massively misleading when there is still a copper line running into your building.

“Full Fibre” – but here’s where I can see the same spin being used by those who want to make the argument against using fibre for the older copper broadband technologies. When is 1000 not 1000? When it’s 150. What do I mean? The headline figure for the upload of one of the major fibre network providers circuits versus the actual guarantee. And this isn’t there to cope with faults, this is based on the fact that GPON or passive optical networks do not have the same qualities as other “full fibre” circuits.

So once again we’re in a position where not all is as it seems. Just as in the days of sharing your bandwidth with your neighbours (the early days of ADSL and cable connections), we’ve come full circle again and your GPON connection’s performance will depend on how many people around you have signed up, and what they are doing that day.

The industry needs more honesty

This is such a shame. The industry needs to be more honest about what is achievable. Set proper expectations of what is achievable in the headline bandwidths for one thing, and not in huge letters proclaiming “Gig it up“.

If you can only guarantee 150mbps then call it a 150mbps service. Stealing customers by promising 1000 – the mythical 1 “gig” is only causing more and more harm to this industry, and when governments and regulators think an industry isn’t working, then they intervene, regardless of how “free market” they claim to profess to be.

And let’s be clear – Ofcom and the ASA have only made this problem worse.

The regulators have got it wrong

From allowing the use of the term “fibre” to describe copper-based technologies (ASA) or encouraging or mandating percentiles and averages to describe the characteristics of connections (Ofcom), the meddling in the industry from official regulators has only caused more harm.

Should a regulator really be infantilising customers by replacing their option of using a simple calendar to remind them when their offer or initial contractual term is up? This is surely a step too far.

But let’s look at where we are right now. The roll out of ADSL2+ still hasn’t been completed. We’re not talking about FTTC here, or FTTP, or the newer still G.fast. We’re talking about a rollout that is in at least its 11th year. You’d be forgiven for assuming it was never to be completed.

When will the FTTC roll out finish? Will it ever? Will G.fast be the successor or will FTTP? And what about the much vaulted 5G.

Mobile networks are as guilty as fixed lines

So far I’ve concentrated on fixed line technologies, but do you remember when 3G was going to save us? When video calling (on the mobile network, not on Wi-Fi) would be the norm? I remember the advertising campaign showing these calls and phones and thinking that there would be an outbreak of waving – such would be the power of video calls.

It never happened. 4G was obviously an improvement, but we’re still not there. Wireless technology is never as good as its promised, and once again here’s the rub.