Optus to be taken to court over broadband speed claims

Australian communications giant Optus is being taken to court by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission over claims about its broadband speeds.

Broadband speeds are very important to many people that are looking for broadband services, and this is an area that many people prioritise on when deciding which broadband service to choose. However, there has been a lot of unrest over the way in which Internet Service Providers advertise broadband speeds compared to the actual speeds that they offer to customers.

It has now been reported that the broadband service provider Optus is going to be taken to court by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, and this is over claims that the provider offered supersonic broadband. The ACCC claims that the provider is misleading consumers with this claim, hence the reason for taking action against the company.

The problem has occurred because Optus has been claiming to offer supersonic speeds of up to 100Mbps, but has been drastically reducing speeds for those that exceed their specified usage allowance. The speeds of these users is slowed down to just 64Kbps, which is around fifteen hundred times slower.

Optus is accused of claiming that its broadband is ‘four times faster than standard broadband’ but failing to mention that the speed could be seriously affected as a result of traffic shaping. As part of the court action the ACCC is planning to bring in an expert witness to explain the difference between the different speeds and what users will be able to do with each.

Source – Think Broadband