Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will take steps to prevent broadband services using copper which is sold as fibre.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the UK's independent regulator of advertising. It recently reviewed the use of the term ‘fibre’ to describe part-fibre and full-fibre broadband and concluded in November 2017 that the term 'fibre' is unlikely to mislead consumers as currently used in the advertising of part-fibre broadband services. Permission for judicial review of this ASA's decision has been granted by the Administrative Court.

On 23 May 2018, the ASA has also implemented a new guidance on broadband speeds advertisement stating that speed claims should now be based on the download speeds available to at least 50% of customers at peak time, and no more on 'up to' speeds available to at least 10% of customers. Ofcom has also updated its Code of Practice on Broadband Speeds recently.