Yet another Ofcom own goal

Friday, December 5th, 2008

Ofcom is once again patting itself on the back for a job well done on its new broadband Code of Practice. “Which? magazine has hailed the code, which comes into force tomorrow, as a broadband speed victory,” the regulator’s homepage proudly proclaims. Utter cobblers.

Let’s look at the detail. The centrepiece of Ofcom’s Code is that broadband providers must “provide consumers at the point of sale with an accurate estimate of the maximum speed that their line can support.” Can you name me one major ISP that hasn’t already been doing this for months? BT has an online ADSL Line Checker that’s been spitting out this information for years.

Even then, knowing your “maximum line speed” is about as much use as knowing the top speed of your car: it’s utterly irrelevant. It’s the actual speed of the connection – what people will see in their day-to-day surfing – that really matters.

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