Survey by company Cable.co.uk reveals majority of consumers have no idea their service arrives through a standard copper telephone line

Two thirds of consumers feel misled by fibre broadband advertising, who are unaware of how their service is provided.

This is according to research by Cable.co.uk, which surveyed 1,000 fibre broadband customers receiving their service from a provider on BT’s Openreach network, which serves four in five UK broadband customers.

Providers include BT, TalkTalk, Sky and Plusnet but not Virgin Media, which operates its own fibre-coaxial network.

The survey revealed that 67.7 per cent of consumers believe the cable providing an internet service into their home is fibre optic, with just 9.3 per cent correctly answering that the cable is a standard copper telephone line.

One in five respondents (21.6 per cent) confessed to not knowing what form the cabling takes, with only 1.4 per cent giving their answer as ‘something else’.

Independent Networks Cooperation Association CEO Malcolm Corbett told Cable.co.uk that action must be taken to resolve this confusion.

“I think it’s time we did something in the UK about misleading advertising of ‘fibre broadband’ for products that are actually fibre to a cabinet and copper to the premises.

“Ofcom have made statements about wanting to see clarity and accuracy over broadband products for consumers and this is an area that warrants action.”