In an attempt to tackle the problems related to the way in which broadband speeds are sold in the UK, the Committees of Advertising Practice has issued new guidelines under which the Internet service providers (ISPs) will have to prove that customers will actually be able to surf the Internet at the "maximum speeds" that the ISPs claim to offer in future.

Going by the new guidelines issued by the government's advertising regulator, any broadband speed claims by ISPs must be achievable by 10 percent or more of the customer base; thereby implying that the term `superfast' now needs to be qualified with speeds that can be achieved by 10 percent users. Furthermore, the guidelines require that the speeds must also use 'up to' and include qualifications.

However, though the new guidelines released by the Committees of Advertising Practice instruct the ISPs to completely revamp the manner in which they advertise broadband speeds, consumer groups are of the opinion that the move is not adequate enough, largely because of the stipulation that the speeds that ISPs advertise should be achieved by a mere 10 percent of the customers.

Terming the guidelines as "extremely unsatisfactory", a spokesman for the Communications Consumer Panel - which had already lashed out at the ISPs for misleading users with 'up to' speeds in their advertisements - said that consumers will still not be able to "make an informed choice of which ISP gives them the best internet speeds overall."