Acer Aspire and Sony Vaio netbook owners may not be getting the broadband speeds that have been advertised to them, according to new research.
Over a quarter of consumers (26 per cent) are not receiving the internet speed they had expected when they signed up to the service, data from Ofcom has revealed.
The regulator conducted 60 million separate service performance tests between November 2008 and April 2009, finding that the actual average broadband speed was 3Mbps slower than the advertised headline speed.
Nine per cent of those that had signed up for headline speeds of 8Mbps only actually received average speeds of 6Mbps.
Jason Glynn, communications expert at uSwitch.com, explained it is worrying that suppliers have been advertising the wrong speeds for so long.
He said: "In Ofcom’s press briefing yesterday, it was actually admitted that no-one on an 8Mb package can get an 8Mb speed.
"Consumers will be very concerned that the industry has been promising something that it cannot deliver."