ComputerActive magazine, along with some partners, are petitioning the UK Government to force Internet Providers to be more honest about the speed users can expect from their connections. They'll advertise the service as 'up to 8mb' but in reality many customers don't achieve even half that.

Please note this petition is only applicable to those living in the UK ...

Petition

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./signed

We're on an 'up to 8Mb' connection. Even if there was enough bandwidth at any given time to support that speed, our local exchange supports 512k max, so that's what we get.

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./signed

I can't recall what mine is excatly (having a few too many brunette moments) but what I do know is I is not getting what was advertised when I signed the contract for me broadband

./signed

My neighbours about 20 yards away from me and further from the exchange are getting 6MB with AOHELL whilst I'm getting 2.3MB of my advertised "up to 8MB". I live on a small estate built 12 years ago so all the lines from the exhange were installed at the same time. Yet still they make all sorts of nonsense excuses for the lack of service

/ signed.
I dont know what service i recive, but ill bet you its not what BT say im getting.

./signed

Urgh.. don't even get me started on Virgin Media. We're meant to get up to 8mb, but we're getting less than 2. It had become much worse since NTL changed their name to Virgin Media and claim to us down the phone that their services haven't changed for the worse, but for the better. All the people that I've heard from so far under the same provider have complained that the speed is much less. Now, I'm normally grateful for what I get, but when you're paying the dosh for the better services, it should be fair to get it. I'd love to see services be more honest about what they provide and what we should be receiving.

Can't sign, darn UK restrictions :/

I completely support this though. The only problem I see is that companies will still continue advertising their "8MB" because it's the truth for one in a million (billion?). If this gets passed to advertise a truer connection speeds, I bet it'll be in fine print. Well at least some print is better than no print ;/

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Credits go to Demented for the pie!

*massively huge bump*

I got an email today saying:

You signed a petition asking the Prime Minister to "instruct Ofcom to force
ISPs to advertise a typical rate for broadband subscriptions, not just a
theoretical 'maximum' rate."

The Prime Minister's Office has responded to that petition and you can view
it here:

http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page15025.asp

I had no idea what this was in reference to at first, lol. Took me aaaaages to remember that I signed this petition. I actually searched the forum for this thread to make sure I wasn't going mad.