When is fibre really fibre?

5 years have passed since we published a blog post about the confusion businesses faced on whether they where connected to fibre broadband or not.

Many things have happened since then. A large number of new broadband providers to the market who are keen to emphasise that customers have been misled on their ‘fibre’ broadband for a long time. But are they right to do so?

As per our post in 2018 we stated our belief in where the confusion was allowed to come from and how the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) allowed broadband providers to call their product fibre even if only fibre was used in a part of the connection.

Anthony Temperton of KAT states” It is frustrating where we have been quoting a business customer on full fibre broadband to be undercut on a product that the customer believes is full fibre but when it is not. Customers rightfully expect honesty from their supplier. Sadly providers like Talk Talk, and BT have been allowed to mislead customers for years”

Anthony adds “It is a little late but It is reassuring to know that 5 years after we posted about this OFCOM are now looking into this and are consulting on allowing a broadband provider to ONLY say fibre when it’s a full fibre circuit.”

Recent research by OFCOM showed that:

• Of 100% of users who believed to be on full fibre broadband it was actually on 46% who where.
• 27% of customer researched did not feel confident in knowing the terminology around broadband used by broadband suppliers
• Over 50% of those surveyed also said it would be useful to have a short description of the product and technology used to deliver the broadband service.

And in a further update broadband service providers such as Sky, BT and beleagured Talk Talk have now responded to OFCOM’s call for clarity.

As of December 2023 OFCOM have now provided a further update and have introduced new guidelines that will effectively only allow broadband providers to use terms like “fibre” and “full-fibre” on their websites, advertising and in contracts, if their network brings fibre optic cables all the way to the customers property.

And in a further step as of 16th September 2024 OFCOM will now enforce rules on misleading use of the words fibre and full fibre when advertising and promoting broadband.

Anthony Temperton adds “These new rules and subsequent enforcement are long overdue. We have spoken to many customers over the years who have believe they are on full fibre when they are not and with the impending Openreach switch off many of these customers who need to act to prevent loss of service havent done as they thought they were already on fibre and therefore protected from the switch off.”

For more information, or to find out if you have been missold full fibre broadband contact our team today via enquiries@katcommunications.co.uk or on 01302 260195. Alternatively visit our broadband page to view our range of business broadband products.