In future, adverts must be based on what is possible to at least half of consumers at peak times.
It follows study that suggested broadband broadcasting can be misleading for customers.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) examined into consumers’ perception of broadband speed claims and discovered that many were confused by headline speeds that they would never really get in their own homes.
The interests were passed on to the Committees of Advertising Practice (Cap) which discussed with ISPs, consumer groups, and Ofcom to get a better way to advertise fast net services.
Most debated that the fairest and transparent way would be to use the medium speeds achieved at peak time by 50% of customers.
As well as maintaining ISPs use “average” instead of “up to” speeds, Cap also recommended ISPs to promote speed-checking equipment in their adverts so that users could test out the speeds they were likely to get from any given service.
Director of the Committees of Advertising Practice, Shahriar Coupal, said: “There are a lot of constituents that affect the broadband speed a consumer is going to get in their own home; from technology to geography, to how a family uses broadband.
“Our new standards will give customers a better understanding of the broadband speeds suggested by different providers when deciding to switch providers.”
The UK’s minister for digital Matt Hancock embraced the change, describing it as a “victory for consumers”.
“I’m delighted to see that Cap is finally developing the way broadband speeds are advertised. Headline ‘up to’ activities that only need to be available to 10% of customers are incredibly misleading – customers need clear, cogent and accurate information in order to make an educated choice.”
The ASA also regarded whether the use of “fibre” in a broadband advertisement was misleading for ISPs that only use fibre to the road-side phone chest, relying on a copper connection for the so-called last mile to a consumer’s home.
It found that most people saw the use of fibre as a “shorthand buzzword” to call fast broadband and ended that it was not misleading for ISPs the use the term.
Alex Neill from customer group Which? said millions of homes were currently experiencing broadband speeds that do not meet expectations.
She said: “It is good to see forms may finally see the speeds they could reach before they sign up for a deal.”
Andrew Ferguson, editor of broadband news website ThinkBroadband said combinations previously advertised as up to 38Mbps will drop to speeds of within 24 and 30Mbps.
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