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Newsbeat listeners rate their broadband speeds

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cablingImage source, bbc

The communications watchdog, Ofcom, says there should be new rules on advertising broadband speed.

It found most people are receiving a much slower service than they were promised.

Adverts say things like "up to 20Mbps" (megabits per second) when in fact most customers find they are getting much less.

69% were getting less than 8Mbps. Only 3% were getting anything approaching the advertised speed.

Newsbeat listeners have been revealing their experiences on our Facebook page.

Image source, bbc

Dan Hall, Stratford-Upon-Avon

Image source, Other

"We were promised a high speed connection of 6Mbps and we only get half of that!

"It always cuts out so playing on games online is difficult.

"I wish we had speeds like they do in America where they get 20Mbps!"

Adam Taylor, Canterbury

Image source, Other

"In my old flat I was paying for 20Mbps but would regularly get 40/50Mbps and even got nearly 100 early in the morning.

"This was because I lived about 100m from the exchange.

"Now I'm lucky if I get 7 or 8Mbps and yet the exchange is only 900m away from where I now live."

Liam 'Mulli' Mulligan, Bedfordshire

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"I'm in Houghton Regis near Luton and my Virgin Media runs 19 most of the time.

"Next door neighbour has BT and let's just say it doesn't even manage half the job Virgin does."

Will Sugg, Swindon

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"Ironically I've just done a test and today is the first time ever I'm getting anywhere near what's advertised.

"Virgin Media say I have 20Mbps, today I'm getting 19.68Mbps but usually it's around the 10Mbps mark."

Rob Ryan, North Yorkshire

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"I live 1.5 miles from my exchange and only get 2.5Mbps speed at best.

"I can play online on Xbox just but I lag quite badly.

"What's more annoying is my work is on the same exchange and is also 1.5 miles away from it but runs at 5Mbps+.

"I live in a village called Leeming and I am with O2 broadband."

Gary Hamilton, Caithness

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"I'm in Wick and we have pre-historic phone lines up here but I still average 6Mbps which isn't too bad I suppose.

"I'm with BT and they DO throttle you if you have high usage, though they deny it!

"Just check your IP profile and see what it's set at, quite often it's lower than it should be!"

Alhaji Saidu Kargbo, West Africa

Image source, Other

"You are talking about speed, in my country Sierra Leone, if you want to download a simple picture before talking about music or playing a game online, it will take nearly one hour or more.

"So what can we do to solve this problem?"