Ofcom performed some mystery shopping tests with the various UK broadband providers to check how many were following the “Broadband Speeds Voluntary Code of Practice” (COPBB), this is where customers are given a broadband speed estimate at the point of sale amongst other things.
For telephone calls, an average of just 43% were given the estimated broadband speed when signing up to a broadband provider over the telephone without having to ask for it.
O2 broadband led the way with 54% given this broadband speed without needing prompting, BT were at the opposite end of the sale in last position with just 28% of calls being given this information without needing to ask for it.
Customers who requested the estimated broadband speed they would receive changed who lead the way, with Plusnet providing overall 93% of lines with their estimated speeds through either voluntarily or requested broadband speeds.
The broadband providers who were included in the results were done so only when there was enough data to give an accurate conclusions and these included: Plusnet, Talk Talk, BT, Orange, O2, Sky and Virgin Media.
For those mystery shoppers who went online to do their research overall it found that 66% were given a broadband speed that was not the headline speed and 21% not able to get a broadband speed online from the broadband providers website.
Virgin Media came out worst in this test finding that they just gave their headline speed to 35% of website users and just 34% given a single figure and 30% not given any speed at all!
The Voluntary code is designed to try and make it clearer for new broadband subscribers what broadband speed that they are likely to receive when signing up to a broadband provider instead of just seeing the advertised headline speed which most users will not receive (unless they live pretty much next to the local telephone exchange).