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ISPs Lie About Broadband "Up To" Speeds
Haffner writes "Ars Technica has an article detailing the difference between ISP advertised 'up to x Mbps' speeds and the actual speeds, in addition to some possible solutions. They find that on average, the advertised speeds were 'up to 6.7 Mbps' while the real median was 3 Mbps and the mean was 4 Mbps. This implies that ISPs were falsely advertising by at least 50%."
You'd think that'd be a mutually beneficial arrangement of the sort that would make Adam Smith proud...
But no, it seems they want to keep my money and their bandwidth, so fuck 'em.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
I have a small local ISP here. Comsouth.net they consistently run at 100 percent of advertised speed. I'm amazed sometimes how fast it is. No lag, no drop in speed after the kiddies get home from school. I don't know what's wrong with them.
This is unbelievable! Next you're going to tell me that "3.9G wireless" doesn't mean anything, or that 9 out of 10 doctors don't recommend Crest, or that most items in an "up to 90% off!" sale are not in fact 90% off!
Sounds pretty paranoid to me. If we can't trust company advertisements for unbiased information, what can we trust?
Up to 7Mbps! Improved flavor, now without trans fat!
Weight loss ad told me I could lose UP TO 50 lbs. I still need to request a seat-belt extender on airplanes
My employer said I could make UP TO a million dollars a year if the company does well. I am still driving a beat up Kia
And, worse of all, that nice email ad said I could increase my length UP TO 9 inches. My wife still has trouble finding it
Meh..
...tell them you will pay them "up to" the agreed on price for their service, but you will determine what the real sums involved will be.
It would be a lot more honest to advertise the "at least" speed, but they don't want to do that because according to the fine print they are actually offering at least zero Mbps.
I wonder how they would feel if their customers offered to pay them up to $40/month.
Come on, did you fail maths or something? If the median is 3 and the mean is 4, then the average is 3.5.
Sometimes the "lying" goes both ways. My connection was advertised as up to 2Mbps. During peak times I'm lucky to get 200k, but offpeak I've seen it running at 9Mbps.
Sorry you have to hear it from me, but that is just porn that is already in your cache. It wasn't really downloading at that rate....
Would you expect to encounter 3 and 4 on your way up to 6.7?
Four shalt thou not count, nor either count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to six point seven.
In my case, the packet of crisps most certainly diminishes the further away I get from the shop.
"In the absence of the ability to establish the attribute of truth they tried to establish the noble attributes."
FTFY.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
The Fivefold Mother