TalkTalk say that Ofcom have reduced my fibre speed!

A long story but the short version is I have been trying to renew my TT contract which included the Fibre Speed boost.
Online was useless and just kept giving an error and try later. After going of for two weeks I used chat to be told that Ofcom stopped faster broadband at my address.
I tried again by telephone but the same story.

What on earth is going on here? I can appreciate it if Ofcom are preventing ISPs overselling when there is no benefit for the customer, i.e. my flat will never have the greatest speed but the better upload and downloads are a definite benefit which I am happy to pay for.

I suppose I must now trawl through other ISPs to find service.

What a load of cobblers

What speed is the modem connecting at? If below 40 Mbps then being on Fibre Speed Boost (now called Fibre Large sometimes) made no sense.

Could it be that the OfCOM requirement about advertised average speeds (https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-interne...) means that TalkTalk are looking to divest themselves of customers signed up to a nominally high-speed package where the actual speeds attained by the customer would drag their average down?

The real excuse then for TalkTalk is that "we aren't going to serve you because the OfCOM average speed requirement hurts our advertising" which becomes in shorthand "we aren't going to serve you because OfCOM won't let us"?

This is a possibility and once I see what their connection speeds are it was something I might have expanded into

What should happen if an ISP goes down the protect average path is move people to the 40/10 package

NOTE: The Ofcom average speed is based on a sample of tested lines, so easy to be selective in which lines are monitored

The crucial thing here is to know what speed the line is capable of.

TT seem to have started a policy of not selling the faster fibre upgrade where the upgrade is not capable of providing a potential benefit. Complaints, backing out and compensation is hardly worth the hassle of miss selling when it can be easily avoided - they have been burnt multiple times in the past.

I think the chances of the TT Help Desk being aware of and understanding Ofcom directives is a bit unlikely.

Have you had any response or reaction from the TT Forum OCE's about this.

Edited by iefbr14 (Sat 18-May-19 10:59:05)

I am sure you are right, this sounds more plausible.

For sure my flat has long wiring to the BT boundary and then on to the cab, so I can understand selling 'faster' connections is open to complaints.

In my case I am happy to pay for the better service, especially at the £2.50pm offered, to get a modest increase in download and upload speeds. I do accept that over distance VDSL gets more like ADSL which is likely my case.

The TT Forum OCE has been active and has offered to get a more senior person to respond.

In the meantime I am still unable to renew my contract with TT and the charge is still £36 per month!

So what speeds is the modem connecting at?

Saying VDSL gets more like ADSL, suggests to me (and others I suspect) your speeds are in the sub 20 Mbps region and if you believe that paying £2.50 extra a month for fibre speed boost is increasing your speeds then sorry to tell you but that is not the case. The 40/10 and 80/20 products are technically the same the only difference is that on the 80/20 product the artificial 40 Mbps cap has been removed. So if you connect at 39.5 Mbps going to the faster product will make no difference

My broadband is 26mbps and doesn't go any higher we had open reach today who say that it's ok yet a case manager from talktalk could see that there was s problem what else can i do all films etc are buffering

I had this same thing despite my router showing an attainable rate of 51M.

They told me it was too close to the threshold for them to re-contract me on that product.

In reply to a post by mdph25:

I had this same thing despite my router showing an attainable rate of 51M.

They told me it was too close to the threshold for them to re-contract me on that product.

Unintended consequence of the Advertising Standards Authority rules. Can't remember the exact wording, but the gist is that ISPs using download speeds in their advertising must show the average download speed a user will achieve at peak times. It is not in the interests of the ISP to let someone who is going to achieve a download speed in the 40s sign up to the 80Mbps service as this will bring down the average which they must use to advertise their product.