The Gloves are Off in the Battle of Broadband

Broadband is a common facility in most modernfibre optics rather than the older telephone lines
homes, the rise in speeds over the past few yearscomprised of copper. Other complaints included the
has seen prices tumble to keep in line with whatomission of the prefix "up to" when describing
customers are willing to spend. For the price you paidbroadband speeds.
for a 128kb connection four years ago, you can nowThe "up to" scandal is one that has plagued
expect to receive an average speed of 2MBbroadband companies for the past year or two,
broadband from some suppliers.when they advertise speeds companies are now
With nearly every household being able to affordrequired to say that advertised speeds are only if
some form of Broadband package these days mostyou have a very good connection and since a good
suppliers are now faced with the battle to gain yourproportion of customers aren't going to fit in this
loyalty, attractive new customer packages are acategory then they should be warned that they may
plenty on our televisions and in order to make yournot get exactly what they think they're paying for,
company appear as the better choice someThe best way to find out if your current broadband
companies have resorted to boasting andis up to scratch is to find out how far away from
mud-slinging to get you to switch on.your local exchange you are, the closer you are the
Virgin and BSkyB are two such competitors who arebetter your broadband will be, if you use an online
in direct competition for customers, both nowbroadband speed test are another way to determine
offering universal packages comprising of Broadband,the actual speed, but don't fret if you are getting
Television and Telephones. Both companies have putbelow half the advertised speed, this is fairly
out slightly misleading advertising campaigns belittlingcommon and something the government is looking
the opponent, who in turn have filed complaints tointo changing.
the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA).Companies like Virgin are changing this by installing
BSkyB complained, amongst other competitors asfibre optic cabling to increase the strength of the
well, that Virgin Media had unfairly compared thesignal over long distances, in countries like Japan they
speed of their 8MB broadband to Virgin's 2MB deal,already have this technology and can handle much
Virgin claimed their cabling did not degrade the furtherfaster speeds that make our "high speed" broadband
you lived from your telephone exchange as they useseem pedestrian in comparison.