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Broadband ISP Virgin Media has called for an ‘end to misleading broadband advertising’ accompanied by an online campaign and petition.
The firm, whose petition you can view here, said that it was urging customers to demand an end to marketing advertising speeds of “up to” 20Mb or 24Mb, but which actually ended up delivering an average of just 6.5Mb. The website launch is aimed at enabling ‘frustrated web users to make their voice heard.”
Virgin founder and entrepreneur Richard Branson said: “Staying connected is central to our lives and we all deserve broadband we can trust. I’m challenging all broadband providers to be honest with their customers and ask people to add their voice to the campaign by signing up to Stopthebroadbandcon.org.”
Virgin Media is in a different position from most British ISPs in that by delivering cable services, its customers are effectively connected to the same capacity as opposed to ADSL providers which are only able to deliver services up to the limits of the technical capability to deliver broadband down the copper telephone system.
As such the ‘campaign’ is a convenient marketing campaign for the broadband giant’s cable broadband unique selling point as one of the only ISPs that does not have to deal with the issue of variable connection speeds. For 50 per cent of the population not covered by Virgin cable services, advertising of broadband speeds is largely irrelevant since any provider will be faced with the same restrictions.
As such Virgin’s move will be seen as an attempt to grab a larger slice of broadband customer market in areas where the firm competes with ADSL service providers.
