Transparency in Broadband Advertising to Canadian Consumers

Author

Laman Meshadiyeva, Janet Lo

Organization

Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC)

Published

2012

Summary

Broadband is a technology with the capacity to bring education, culture, government services, and global communications into every consumer’s home and community. Communications services are an essential part of living in our digital economy. However, broadband services are growing so quickly that despite their importance to consumers and communities, many broadband service providers have allowed consumer protection to take second place to corporate expansion and profit. A global research project by Consumers International revealed that internet connection speeds are unreliable and claims made about speed are frequently inaccurate.

For the most part, Canadian internet service providers (ISPs) use “up to” speed claims about download and upload speed to advertise their services. One major ISP presents speed ranges that consumers can expect to experience. Many factors, such as access technology, network congestion, latency, packet loss, jitter and issues with the user’s home computer, router and network can affect the connection speed.

PIAC's survey reveals that consumers have high expectations of internet speeds when an "up to" speed claim is presented to them. The majority of consumers surveyed believe that they should receive the advertised maximum download speed always or most of the time. Where a disclaimer is presented to them noting conditions that may affect the achievability of the "up to" speed claim, consumer expectations shift slightly but the majority still expect to receive the advertised maximum download speed at least some of the time.

PIAC’s report culminates in six recommendations.

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OCA Funded Research
This research received funding support through the Office of Consumer Affairs' Contributions Program.

Contact information

Source: Consumer Policy Research Database