Britons untrusting of broadband advertising, says survey

A recent survey carried out by price comparison service Broadband Genie revealed that the majority of Britons felt that advertisements for internet service providers were dishonest, with the product itself not living up to the promises made by their providers' marketing campaigns.

Broadband Genie said it found "widespread distrust and a worrying amount of confusion" over the basic technical aspects of home broadband, especially when it came to speed.

62% of the survey's 1,384 respondents signalled that they did not trust broadband advertising.

In 2017, Sky was banned from advertising in July after claiming its broadband service was "super reliable" and BT was lambasted after airing an advert that stated it had the "UK's most powerful Wi-Fi signal".

More than 30% of those surveyed felt they had been actively misled by broadband advertising.

The survey also indicated that further work needed to be done to aid consumers understanding of what it is that they are purchasing, with 29% of respondents saying they were not aware of the advertised speed of their service, and 21% responding that they did not know what type of service it was they held.