Operators to pay compensation when broadband is slow

According to the Daily Telegraph, operators will have to pay compensation when consumers suffer slow broadband.

I wonder how this will work. My Post Office broadband can become almost unusable in the evening most likely because the back haul from the exchange is under configured.

Can I look forward to some compensation, or hopefully better performance?

If it's based on a minimum 10 meg then it's going to be impossible to implement. I could barely get that over FTTC so what would happen then? Would ISP's be forced to provide FTTP?

My broadband would almost be free at £75 per fault (think I've had three or four CAB disconnections and one HR fault in four years).

It'll be interesting to see what the operators do if the fault is not their problem - presumably if speed drops due to interference from another property they won't want to pay out!

How this works and the levels of compensation will be out to consultation in 2016.

Aim is more to push Openreach to offer compensation automatically, but for it to work needs retailers to play ball too, and as highlighted already not all 'faults' are down to Openreach e.g. backhaul capacity is often down to purchasing decisions of the retailer or their associated provider.

Also a danger that while Openreach is heavily regulated, the retailers may simply add another 75p to line rental, so that the chunk they pay out from their slice is spread across all users i.e. consider it an insurance payment.

if the regulation is wholesale side only its pointless, if ofcom want to prove they learning their lesson this needs to be done on the retail side.

e.g. its no good openreach pay a CP for missed appointments when that doesnt get passed onto the end user.

My Post Office broadband can become almost unusable in the evening

I think the journalist has jumped to conclusion there I don't think "reduction of service" = "slow".

That may mean one of your services is not working ie either PSTN or xDSL.


I don't think anybody is going to get ££ when the broadband is "only" running slow.

The 10meg target seems to say otherwise. However, until this is all ratified, we can't assume anything.

In reply to a post by Deadbeat:

The 10meg target seems to say otherwise. However, until this is all ratified, we can't assume anything.

There are always a certain amount of get-out clauses that relate to congestion during peak hours.

For example, within BDUK:
Even though the normal superfast speed target is 25Mbps+ or 30Mbps+, that refers to the access capability during uncongested period. The specifications for behaviour in congested peak hour periods end up specifying something like 15Mbps for 90% of the peak period - which obviously allows it to fall below 15Mbps for 10% of the peak period.

You can bet that a USO of 10Mbps will come with similar clauses.

And you can bet that any SLA terms that trigger a "slow speed" payment will come with similar clauses ... but they might allow a period for the ISP to rectify the problem.

You can be absolutely sure that one speedtest result will not be enough to trigger a payment.

You can be absolutely sure that one speedtest result will not be enough to trigger a payment.

And rightly so.

So many times I have seen people moaning about speeds, but investigation finds it due to the punters equipment, duff wireless etc.

And think of it, any ISP who had adslmax as a punter would be skint in weeks !

If that is the case Ofcom needs to get a LOT bigger, since there is a very long tail of small providers.