A new code of practice to ensure that internet service providers offer greater clarity over customers' broadband line speeds has been published by Ofcom, the independent regulator and competition authority for the communication industries in the UK.

More than 30 ISPs, covering over 90 per cent of broadband customers in the UK, have already agreed to honour both the letter and the spirit of the code to give consumers a clearer understanding of the speeds they can get and to ensure that they are on an appropriate broadband package.

Ofcom said it was concerned that consumers could be misled or misinformed when choosing their broadband services by ISPs advertising headline speeds that are higher than users can receive in practice.

The regulator’s own research has shown that consumer satisfaction of ISPs has fallen over the last year.

Ofcom is also undertaking what it says is the UK’s "most authoritative and comprehensive broadband speed survey" to identify actual broadband performance across the country and its relationship to advertised speeds.

Code requirements

There are several steps that fixed-line ISPs are required to take under the voluntary code. These include:

• Providing customers at the point of sale with an accurate estimate of the maximum speed that the line can support, whether it is in the shop, over the internet or on the phone; resolving technical issues to improve speed and offering customers the choice to move onto a lower speed package when estimates given are inaccurate.

• Ensuring all sales and promotion staff have a proper understanding of the products they are selling so they can explain to their customers the meaning of the estimates provided at the point of sale.

• Providing consumers with information on usage limits and alerting customers when they have breached them.

Ofcom’s chief executive, Ed Richards, said: "Broadband is a thriving market in the UK. We want to encourage real clarity for consumers about the actual broadband speeds they can receive. This voluntary code is a significant step in this direction."