Top broadband speeds claimed by internet service providers are not achieved by any of them - meaning that no consumers in Britain benefit.
Media regulators have shown that the fastest connections to the web on offer from companies such as BT and AOL are 'theoretical'. Ofcom said none achieved their boasts and 'hardly any' got close. The disclosure prompted calls for an inquiry into the way internet packages are sold.
Broadband services are generally marketed on the basis of top connection speeds. More than half of users are on packages offering speeds of up to 8 megabits per second. Ofcom checks showed that about 45 per cent of users in this category - or more than 4million homes - had an average speed of only 3.9 megabits per second. Some 20 per cent of those with these packages could not even get above 2 megabits, the standard laid down in Labour plans to give everyone broadband.
The highest a customer on one of these packages can hope for is about 7.2 megabits - and then only if they live very close to a telephone exchange.
Faster access to the net allows web pages to load quicker and dramatically shortens the time it takes to download files. To download a high- quality film at 8 megabits would take 1 hour and 11 minutes and a music track would take 5 seconds. At 2 megabits, the same film would take 4 hours and 48 minutes and the song 21 seconds.
As part of its investigations Ofcom revealed that AOL, Tiscali and BT were among the worst performers among the top nine companies. Virgin Media, which offers more powerful services through its cable network, was the best. Ofcom said speeds were affected by the firms' technology and the capacity of their networks.
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