Is Your ISP Slow?

This quick article is brought to you by ZIP Broadband, the premier Colorado Springs ISP.

Here is a common question that we get from broadband consumers.

Question:

Can third party speed test results be used as evidence in a dispute with my Internet Service Provider (ISP)?

Answer:

ISPs will generally not recognise any network testing tools other than their own.

However, ISPs would have a tough time defending your issues with "speed" if you can provide documented evidence from several different sources showing that you are receiving speeds below what you can show you were promised.

Your difficulty would be not so much proving what speed that you are actually getting but more proving what speed you have been promised (and paying for). In the UK broadband industry, the magical "up to" words are a universal legal get out clause for ISPs. Couple this with the very grey definitions of Service Level Agreements (SLA's) from most ISPs and you can start to get the picture that the odds are not stacked in your favour as a broadband customer.

As a broadband customer, your expectation of speed is set by the marketing media. Phrases such as "Up to 8meg" and "Fibre Optic Broadband" are commonly used by UK broadband providers to entice new customers. When new customers sign up, they can commonly and quickly become disappointed when their actual connection speeds fall way below what they were led to believe from the marketing blurb. In a study conducted in April 2008, we found that the average broadband speeds in the UK to be just 3.62 Meg which is less than half of the commonly used "up to 8 Meg" marketing phrase from numerous companies.

Inevitably, the obvious and consistent gaps between marketing lead promises and actual speeds delivered gives rise to disputes between ISPs and customers. With many customers being left disappointed with their broadband speeds and very little legal recourse to do anything about it, many consumers now see "fast" broadband with a certain degree of scepticism.

Ultimately, we believe that the "up to" clause is generally not good for the industry or consumer. At the moment, the only way for customers to get around speed disputes with their ISPs and get a better service is to shop around for providers that offer faster average speeds.

UK broadband customers might be interested to learn that we are working with one of the largest ISPs to provide them with ongoing results from our speed test. Interestingly, it would appear that ISPs themselves sometimes do not know themselves what speed they are actually delivering to customers.

http://www.broadband-help.com

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