The Australian government is considering a bill that would bring about a change for ISPs operating in the country. The bill would make it illegal for ISPs to falsely advertise high internet speeds. Per the proposed legislation, if ISPs are found to be lying about internet speeds, it would be a findable offense that could cost ISPs up to $1 million AUD, if they violate the law.
Telling Motherboard, Andrew Wilkie, a member of the Parliament who introduced the bill this week, said, “People are getting worse than dial-up speed when they’ve been promised a whizz-bang, super-fast connection.” He mentions one person complaining to him saying that they were getting charged for 25 Mbps download speed and a 5 Mbps upload speed, but were getting less than one-tenth of that.
The proposed law would force ISPs to become more transparent about internet speeds and list typical speeds that are experienced by the average internet user, period when traffic tends to be much higher, and other factors that may affect the service being offered.
