British broadband is slow. Very slow.

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If you waited ten seconds or so for this page to load, then you’ll know this already, but your broadband is pretty slow. The Office of National Statistics has revealed that despite Ofcom claiming last year that the average broadband speed in the country is 4.6Mb/sec, more than 42% of connections are less than half that speed – slower than 2Mb/sec.

It turns out that a handful of people using 24Mb/sec services are skewing the stats upward. Worst of all, these figures refer to the advertised ‘headline’ data transfer rates not actual speeds. Statistics for actual speeds would probably be closer to 1Mb/sec, or even lower.

But perhaps it doesn’t even matter. 55% of you have no idea how fast your broadband is, anyway. That said, nearly a fifth of you aren’t happy with it, says a separate report issued by OfCom.

(via PC Pro)

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Apple forced to drop misleading iPhone ads

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Turns out that the 3G iPhone isn’t “really fast” after all. In fact, by saying so, Apple broke Advertising Standards Agency rules.The ASA upheld complaints by 17 people who said that their iPhone 3G was anything but fast, and that the TV advert had misled them.

The ad, if you’ve not seen it, goes on and on about how the iPhone 3G is ‘really fast’, and shows maps and news sites appearing in milliseconds. 3G’s good, but even in central London it’s not that good. Apple, therefore, will not be able to broadcast the advert again in its current state.

No word whether a new version of the ad will include 20-second ‘loading’ pauses and random Safari crashes.

ASA’s ajudication (via the Big British Castle)

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