A new Ofcom report slams the shameful state of British broadband offerings, claiming that many ISPs still regularly mislead their customers on advertised broadband speeds.

Ofcom states that the average broadband speed in the UK is 6.8Mbps (megabits per second) - which marks a 10 per cent increase in speed over the last six months - but warns consumers that there is still a notable disparity between actual speeds and those speeds advertised by ISPs.

The average 'advertised' speed is actually 15Mbps, which is over twice the real average speed noted by Ofcom.

Over half of Brits use services that are advertised to offer speeds over 10Mbps, yet a small minority of these users actually receive this service.

Virgin tops broadband league

ISP Virgin Media comes out top of the pack in Ofcom's latest report, with Virgin quick to criticise its competitors for misleading their broadband consumers.

Jon James, executive director of broadband for Virgin Media, said: "The gulf between what's advertised and what speeds customers get continues to grow. Whilst Virgin Media delivers more than 90% of the speeds we advertise, ISPs promising speeds of 'up to' 20Mb or 24Mb are delivering an average of just 6.6Mb.

"We remain concerned that people paying for fast broadband are still being misled and believe it is absolutely essential that consumers have all the information they need to make an informed choice. We once again urge the ASA to bring about a rapid change in the way broadband services are being advertised."

Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards said of the latest broadband speed report: "The research is still telling us that some consumers are not receiving anywhere near the speeds that are being advertised by some ISPs.

Ofcom is calling for a review of ISPs' advertising practises, "so that consumers are able to make more informed decisions based on the adverts they see".

Advertised speeds versus actual speeds (Ofcom)

• BT's "up to" 20Mbps - average 7.3 - 9.1Mbps
• Plusnet's "up to" 20Mbps - average 6.6 - 8.4Mbps
• Sky's "up to" 20Mbps - 7.2 - 8.1Mbps
• TalkTalk's "up to" 24Mbps - 7 - 8.5Mbps
• Virgin Media's "up to" 20Mbps - 16.4 - 18.1Mbps
• Orange's "up to" 20Mbps - 6.6 - 7.6Mbps
• 02/Be's "up to" 24Mbps - 10 - 11.5Mbps

Tom Anderson, the guy most of us know as the smiling fella who was automatically your friend on MySpace, has issued some tips for Google on how to make G+ a success.

Anderson, who co-founded MySpace and was the long-time president in the site's glory days, reckons there are five things Google can do now to help its latest Facebook rival along the way.

In a column called "Five things I learned from running MySpace that can help Google+" on the TechCrunch website, default Tom says their are several things the Google+ team can do immediately.

Get the influencers on board

He says Google should "start seriously courting the journalists, tastemakers, and celebrities that are using and/or pontificating about G+... and have a personal relationship with them."

Secondly Anderson says Google needs to be wary of the outstanding privacy issues that has seen Google+ users already share data they did not intend to.

He says Google must "exhaustively think through the privacy issues and tie up any loose/ends that G+ has on this front. I'd make sure that people understand how their posts can be shared/reshared, and how their other Google accounts (profile, Gmail, docs) and content (Youtube, Picasa) are connected to G+."

Analytical minds and project visionaries

Beyond that, Tom says that Google must have its best analytical minds focused on identifying the common user. Google+ currently has 20m users and that user data must be mined like gold, he says.

He also recommends that Google hires the best project visionaries in the world who have a track record in "leading people to internet nirvana" in order to perfect the site and the service that it offers.

One leader to rule them all

Finally he says the site really needs one strong leader that everything goes through, a la Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook and Steve Jobs at Apple.

"Making a website is similar to making a movie—hundreds of people work on it, one person makes the final decision, and they make them every minute of the day," he adds.

"That person has got to bring it all together and make decisions based on his gut and understanding of the overall company's mission. No that leader won't always get it right, but the clarity achieved and time saved is crucial"

Anderson's TechCrunch column is a fabulous read that is really worth checking out, and hopefully a few folks at Google will take a look too.

Via TechCrunch