Of half a dozen internet service providers (ISPs) tested in the evening peak during July and August, none came close to delivering the new target for high-speed internet — 8 megs (the informal abbreviation for Mbps, the unit by which the transfer of broadband data across a phone line is measured). The highest speed achieved was 2.52 megs (see graphic, above).

The rot set in last April, when broadband began being advertised at “up to” 8 megs. Since then, barrow-boy barking and vaguely worded contracts have masked poor performance. Spivvish offers make comparing tariffs meaningless — an outrage when most service providers handcuff customers to contracts of 12 or even 18 months.

Forty per cent of UK households now have broadband, a 12% increase on 2005, but the industry is playing us for mugs. It knows that most consumers believe broadband conforms to a standard — like gas — whoever delivers it to your home. Yet within the same street, performance varies wildly between providers, as does customer service. The telecoms regulator, Ofcom, says consumers must examine ISPs to “assess which suits them”. However, making an informed purchase in today’s tumultuous marketplace is, frankly, beyond the average family.

“The difference between products is verging on scandalous, and it’s hard for consumers to know what they are buying,” says Andrew Ferguson, of the independent online monitor ADSLGuide, “The broadband market is becoming a minefield to negotiate, with consumers not knowing what speeds they will receive until the service is up and running.”

ISPs that make identical claims often deliver very different connection speeds, and most, if not all, can never reach their stated targets. In speed tests carried out by consumers at ADSLGuide, the average evening download rates for two services advertised as “up to” 8 megs differed by a factor of three (0.86 megs for TalkTalk; 2.52 megs for PlusNet).

Off-peak speeds can, of course, be faster. Yet, though TalkTalk offered “up to” 8 megs, it delivered an off-peak average of a paltry 1.2 megs — almost exactly the same as a 2-meg connection. The company has since admitted to Doors that it has barely started upgrading to the latest ADSL technology — a scandalous case of mis-selling.

“We are trialling the DSLMax service and, all being well, hope to upgrade lines to this service in the future,” TalkTalk said. Yet, for months it has been marketing “up to” 8 megs as the target speed.

Such discrepancies abound throughout the industry. Specifications can change on a monthly basis, though performance figures are not available to the public and ISPs are under no obligation to Ofcom to deliver the exotic speeds they advertise. It’s as if ISPs are allowed to promise a Porsche and deliver a Nissan. If our cars spluttered because Shell or BP passed off diesel as premium-grade petrol, there would be an outcry. Britain’s internet users should be as furious about watered-down, inconsistent, broadband.

“We suddenly and completely lost our Wanadoo [now Orange] broadband connection,” says Hilary Stafford-Clark, a writer from Kent. “After many expensive and tedious calls to a help centre in India, I was told the problem was definitely not with the ISP, but with my router. I later discovered Wanadoo was getting a signal from some distance away — too far to support the two-meg service it had sold us without checking whether the telephone line could handle it.”

Such mis-selling is typical of many ISPs. “They are playing fast and loose,” Ferguson says. “It’s a disgrace.”

Broadband has become a “stack ’em high, sell ’em cheap” commodity since big brands began giving it away in exchange for loyalty to their core services. Since TalkTalk introduced its spurious offer of “free” broadband, rival providers have been vying to bundle your day-to-day internet needs with pay TV and telephone. Companies as diverse as the mobile network Orange and the broadcaster BSkyB (part owned by NewsCorp, the parent company of The Sunday Times) have led an internet land grab and forced ISPs to slash prices.

However, unlike reliable utilities such as electricity, pared-to-the-bone broadband can prove frustratingly flaky. In the past 18 months, since BT upped its basic offering to a then-pacy 2 megs, customer satisfaction has plummeted. The number of home broadband customers who describe themselves as “very satisfied” has fallen by almost a fifth at the same time as average speeds have increased nearly fourfold, says Niall Rae, a director at the market research company GFK. “There can be few examples of a service providing so much additional benefit while customers grow less happy.”

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