U.K. regulator of competition, OfCom, and the Advertising Standards Authority have recently made it harder to judge exact broadband speeds in Great Britain, according to broadbandgenie.co.uk, a U.K.-based wireless and wired broadband comparison Website.

New rules meant to decrease confusion for consumers, issued in April, first dictate that ISPs in the U.K. can no longer post “up to” speeds as a measure of their Internet speeds, as these numbers are usually not able to be achieved by about 10 percent of customers on any network.

Unfortunately, the new rules have instead made it harder for consumers to tell what Internet speeds are supposed to be as the “up to” estimate shave been replaced with lists of differing speed estimates.

“In many cases the download speeds quoted are still far in excess of the rates a user is likely to see in practice,” said Broadband Genie editor Matt Powell. “While at the same time it hasn’t made things any clearer for someone who simply wants the best service for their money; in fact, it’s now worse.”

“Now when comparing broadband services we’re seeing a wider range of speeds, even when ISPs are using the same equipment,” he added. “Postcode checks on an unbundled exchange result in varying estimates – some as high as 18Mb – but there’s no difference in the hardware at the exchange and in reality the line is not going to be faster than 8Mb.”

According to the latest data from OfCom, the average U.K. broadband connection clocks in at just 7.6Mb – much lower than the speeds being advertized. OfCom and the ASA attempted to make ISP advertising more accurate, as figures given are typically not accurate before a customer signs up for service, by getting rid of such misleading claims.

According to a poll conducted by Broadband Genie in November 2011, only about 5.3 percent of U.K. broadband customers are happy with their broadband service. In a separate survey also conducted by Broadband Genie in June 2011, the majority of the nation’s subscribers would ‘definitely’ pay more for faster broadband service.