Virgin Media.. I pay for 20mb and rarely get above 7mb on the download speed - upload is consistent at 750k (as provided), indicating that this really is a problem with the service. I've escalated to the customer service folk many times - no clue how to resolve but I did get 3 months free service.

Adam, Swindon, Wiltshire

I'm on Virgin Media 10Mb an getting 9989Bps I can't grumble about that can I??

kurt, Doncaster, England

ISP's are just like banks, they advertise one thing and deliver another, such is life. If you don't like it, don't have the internet. No one votes with their feet anymore, thats why they get away with it. Use a service to compare speeds and then go for the best, the others will catch up or go broke.

sam bancroft, Great Yarmouth, UK

It's no different to anything else you buy in rip off UK; charge as much as you can, give the customer as little as you can -- that's just the sort of ethos Brown's government espouses. Get out while you can, I did six years ago and wild horses couldn't drag me back.

Paul, Kissimmee, EX-PAT, USA

I am on Virgin Media 20 mb and always get beteween 18 and 20. Can't understand why people don't?

Paul, Alderley edge, uk

There's a simple solution. If we record our download speed (an online progam is available), there is no reason why we should not require our ISPs to charge us at that rate. If they tell us 'up to 8Mb' and our average is 4Mb, we pay only for the speed they deliver (a good commercial principle).

Bill Q, Derby,

I live in Suffolk & my regular speed is 0.85mb/s !! Who can I complain to, to get this rectified please ?

Rose Richards, Hopton,

Finally, someone's written an article about it! I'm an urban user and I pay for "up to 8MB" from BT and was told I should be getting 6.5mb. Nowhere near - my top download speed, very rarely achieved, is 50kb. My dad is rural, with Toucan and gets 7MB. How is this fair?

Tria, Manchester, England

What customers need to know is the MINIMUM speed they will receive, not some notional maximum.
A broadband service of 1Mbps can truthfully be said to be 'up to' a billion Mbps; this is useless information for customer wanting to know what speed they will actually get.

Alice Adams, London, UK

Surely a code of providing “an accurate estimate of the Maximum speed” is completely missing the point. I want to know the MINIMUM speed that I will have available… I want a guaranteed bandwidth at peak times. What’s the use of knowing what speed I might occasionally get at four in the morning?

Nicholas B King, London, Surrey

Theres an easy way around it. find out what speeds ARE available where you are and pay for that level of package! I know that the up to 8mb/s advertised doesn't apply where I live, max speed is 2, so guess what, I just pay for the 2 meg package and will upgrade when my provider does.

AK, Pig Hill,

I agree regulation is required so ISP's are obliged to tell their customer what max speed is available in their area.At least that way, people would not expect 8MB then end up with 127kbps like poor Donald in rural Beauly,where 127kbps IS probably near to 10times what was available with dial up.

John, Brighton,

I'm with Virgin Media, I have a 10mb connection, occasionally, it doesn't run to speed but normally it is on form with 10mb/s. I have on one instance, had just over 11mb/s. It can sometimes depend on the area and conditions of the line.

Daniel Hindley, Doncaster,

I am on fibre optic and pay for 20mb service, why I constantly ask myself when i'm choked to speeds of 2mb after 3gig of downloading thats 20mins full use at max speed then 4hrs of 2mb speeds, effectively 5mb average speed IF it was used to its full potential. The only choice I have is to move.

Simon, Willenhall, West Midlands

The whole Broadband experience needs a good shake up. Advertise speeds you WILL receieve not COULD receieve.
If the contract is "unlimited" then let it be unlimited, not throttled to a quarter download speed if you are deemed a "heavy user"

Andrew Whitman, Tadworth, England

Rubbish, the internet in UK is fast it’s very fast. This is a complicated subject it all depends on lots of different things like server speed and distance the amount people on a particular web site, you can have the fastest connection in the world but if you are connecting to a slow web server you are going to get a slow response.

Paul, Bridgend, UK

As stated below there is no miss selling, it clearly states "UP TO"

This is also nothing to do with the ISP's, it is a limitation of the old copper BT network. The further away from the exchange you are, the slower the speed you will get.

Richard Banks, Farnborough, England

I pay for 8mb and i get 7.3 which is pretty good.. tho it is god aweful sluggish at peak times on occasions

rory t, eastleigh, england

Things like this make me laugh.
ISP's are not mis-selling due to the fact they say you get UP TO Xmbps, not YOU WILL.
It is clearly stated in any T&C's, you will get the line speed based on a number of factors.
If you have a line speed of 4mb and sign up to a 8mb service, 4mb is what you get.

Paul, Gosport, UK

For the last 7 months I have been receiving less than 500k on my Orange Broadband 8MB account. They have not done anything about it and I have wasted £££s on ringing them complaining on their national rate phone lines. I give up. I have a home in Spain where I pay for and get a guaranteed 16mb!

David Tab, London, UK

Virgin Media are ripping their customers off, I for one will not be using them after my 12 month contract has ended. 8mb what a joke, I’m on dial up speed most of the time…..

Mark, Warrington, England

I had an unlimited package with BT at the top price of nearly £30 a month but my speed regularly dropped from 6meg to 0.4. Months and months of complaining later they eventually admitted to turning my speed down on purpose as I "went over the limit". What limit??? I moved to o2 - no problems since!

Mr N R Taylor, Blackpool, Lancs

At least I know I'm not alone now - 924kbs (yes that's less than 1 megabit!). I'm all for paying for what you actually receive. More to the point how do we go about persuading BT to improve the situation? I'm even in central England only just over 1 mile from an exchange, not out in the wilds!

Sue Green, Alton, Staffs

Hold on a minute all you consumer zealots, there's nothing particularly special about this situation is there ?
We all buy and drive cars capable of , say, 120 mph, but we have a national speed limit of 70 mph and generally drive at 30-50 mph ( or 7 mph in London ) and no one calls in regulators?

Mike , Pilton, UK

I have been complaining to BT my ISP about this situation for years. BT does nothing and it won't spend the money on optical. Why can't Ofcom fine the ISP heavily like the other regulators do until they change their ways.

john, london, UK

Speed is irrelevant. What is the point of super fast broadband when you are capped at 20 or 30 gb a month? May as well still have dial up. The faster it is the faster the limit is reached.

Len, Oban, UK

I am with Talktalk and have had problems on and off for years but they always sort it out and as the charge of £17 per month includes Landline rental, unlimited anytime calls (including International) and Free Broadband, I cannot complain.

The value is excellent!

Anne Kent, Dorset,

There should be a scaled charge which reflects the known speed available to a customer dependant on their location. BT Total Braodband promised 10 x better than dialup modem - I get a download speed of 127kbs. Arithmetic was never my strong subject or did they mean a 12kbs modem?

Donald Shaw, Beauly, Scotland

I just want it to work and mine does. I am surprised that it works at all. it's all magic to me

peter c, Devizes, Wessex

Never had more than 1.9Mbs, but I pay BT for "up to 8Mbs". If Mr Brown wants to get people into employment he could do worse than employing people to get all the country connected by Fibre Optic cable. I shan't be holding my breath though as this is a sensible solution.

Anil Chatterjee, Manchester,

We all know this - but what can you do about it? I use a BT Home Hub and have repeatedly made them aware that my "up to 8mb speed" rarely exceeds 3mbs. The only choice I have is to move to get the same speed at a cheaper price, which I will do once my contract expires. Frankly, it is a disgrace.

Giuseppe, Lytham, UK

An ASA spokeswoman said ... "we require advertisers to state an ‘up to’ speed."

Which is exactly how ISPs mislead consumers!

What consumers need is a 'from' speed citing the minimum data transfer rates rather than the totally illusory 'connection' speeds advertised.

paul j. weighell, purley, england