O2 praises Crystal Clear broadband campaign

Says its new service will "be a breath of fresh air... with no broken promises”

Dinah Greek, Computeract!ve 12 Oct 2007

Mobile phone operator and nascent broadband provider O2 has praised Computeractive's Crystal Clear broadband campaign.

The company commented on the real headway the campaign is making with the push for clear information about the actual broadband speed consumers are likely to receive.

With the launch of its own broadband service on Monday, O2 told Computeractive that one of its priorities was to ensure that its customers received the speeds they were promised.

Matthew Key, O2 UK's chief executive officer, said: “Computeractive’s Crystal Clear campaign highlighted the confusion about broadband speeds in the UK market. The market is fuelled by price competition but customers are also frustrated over hidden costs, bad customer service and technical complexity."

So far the campaign has received support from MPs and this week, it prompted Ofcom's Consumer Panel to write to the six leading internet service providers (ISPs), Sky, BT, Carphone Warehouse (which owns Talk Talk & AOL), Orange, Tiscali and Virgin Media.

In her letter, panel chairman Colette Bowe said: “We believe that broadband customers are not at the moment getting enough information.

"We are of course aware of the technical reasons for the 'up to' terminology that you use. I would, however, like to have your views about how these technical issues might be better addressed in terms of giving clearer information to potential customers.”

Matthew Key said with less than a third of subscribers 'very satisfied' with their broadband provider, O2 hopes its broadband service will meet Ofcom and our campaign's aims and would "shake up the market".

To ensure the promised 'transparency' of speed we have been calling for, O2 said there would be a series of checks to ensure customers got the speeds promised.

Before a customer has to sign up for the service O2 said it will carry out an initial line check. The company said this will estimate the speeds the customer can receive so they are placed on the correct package.

Key said the line will be checked again around one month after the sign-up date to ensure the line can support the service and that O2 is delivering the promised speed.

These checks also come close to meeting the call by Ofcom for ISPs to offer customers a 'Try before you buy' option.

We called the six ISPs to see if they had any response to Ofcom's letter.

Virgin Media spokesperson told us: "While we believe that headline broadband speeds remain a useful and relevant measure of broadband performance, we recognise that 'real world' connection speeds can be affected by a number of factors and that consumers are sometimes confused by some marketing claims.

"We will work with the Ofcom Consumer Panel to make sure these complexities are fully understood by customers and reflected in our marketing communications. "

Orange reiterated the problem of technical restrictions, such as distance from the exchange and weather conditions. It said it was applying a number of upgrades to its network over the coming month and will also offer customers the ability to fix internal wiring issues.

"We regularly conduct our own research among our broadband customers. Currently, customers reporting slow speed problems account for less than three per cent of calls to our customer services team," it told us.

A BT representative said: "BT has always made clear in our advertising that the headline 'up to 8Mb' broadband speeds are subject to a range of factors. These include distance from the exchange, internet traffic, and the customer's equipment.

"We are carefully considering the comments made by the Ofcom Consumer Council and will respond to them in due course."

O2's broadband service is open to both O2 customers and those using other mobile networks. Customers will need to have a BT line to access the service, which will use BT's ADSL2+ network.

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