Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will no longer be able to boast of their maximum speed claims in adverts unless a reasonable percentage of their customers receive those speeds.

The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) has ruled that ISPs will only be able to make claims of their maximum speeds if the speeds are actually reachable for at least 10 per cent of their customer base.

The new guidelines announced by the CAP will make ISPs to down their average broadband speed claims from as high as 24Mbps to as low as 13Mbps in adverts.

However, Consumer organizations have criticized the CAP’s "10 per cent rule," arguing that it would not be enough to protect customers from irrational speed claims.

Speaking on the new guidelines, the Communications Consumer Panel said, “Consumers are still unable to make an informed choice of which ISP gives them the best internet speeds overall if only 10% of a provider's customers get the maximum advertised speed.”

A recent Ofcom survey revealed that the average advertised broadband speed of is 13.8 megabits per second, more than double of the average broadband speed (6.2Mbps) received by the customers.

The actual picture of the broadband speeds is clear from a recent research carried out by price comparison site uswitch. com, which revealed that Mount Pleasant Street in the Suffolk market town of Halesworth received average broadband speed of merely 0.128Mbps.