Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he has plans to obligate internet broadband companies to be more transparent on achievable speeds.

Both Ofcom and the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) have taken action on broadband speeds recently.

Ofcom’s published a new Broadband Speeds Code of Practice on 1 March 2019, under which companies have to provide consumers with a minimum guaranteed speed at the point of sale. If a consumer’s speed then drops below this level, companies have one month to improve performance, before they must allow consumers to leave their contract penalty-free. This right to exit also applies to landline and TV packages, which are purchased at the same time as broadband services

Prior to this, in May 2018, the ASA implemented guidance that requires speed claims in adverts to be based on the download speeds available to at least 50% of customers at peak time and no longer on 'up to' speeds available to at least 10% of customers.