Broadband: Does truth in advertising exist?


Posted on November 2, 2011  /  0 Comments

One aspect that we tend to use frequently is advertised vs. delivered performance of broadband packages. This year LIRNEasia tested broadband packages in 10 cities across 6 countries, out of which the worst three in terms of offering far less than promised were India’s Airtel 2 Mbps packages (tested in Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore) and SLT’s 2 Mbps package tested in Colombo.

When it comes to USB dongle based packages we noticed a difference in advertised speeds with most operators quoting the dongle speed or (more often than not) ‘up to’ 3.6 Mbps. The danger of advertising the dongle or highest speed is evident when test results of Mobitel and Dialog are compared. Mobitel, who advertises the package speed as 1 Mbps fairs better than Dialog – marginally in actual download speeds, but considerably in delivering closer to what was advertised. Having said that, Mobitel still delivers, on average, only 35% of the promised 1 Mbps.

Reports can be accessed here.

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