The investigation is understood to be launched following the findings of a previous probe, a broadband speed test that revealed mobile broadband deals had boasted of delivering up to 8Mbps in their adverts, in reality crawled along at speeds of around a ridiculous 3.9Mbps.

It is quiet interesting that the Ofcom inquiry into the real connection speeds delivered by UK ISPs would coincide the launch of the fastest broadband internet deal highlighting connection speeds of up to 100Mbps in the UK broadband sector by the leading cable and fibre optic broadband provider in the country; Virgin Media.

It is further amusing for the consumers in across the UK that the regulator has issued a warning to the broadband providers in the country that it would be strictly monitoring scores of homes in the country to check whether the claims really matched. This could be acid test for Virgin Media as it has already claimed that its supersonic connections travelled at greater than twice the 40Mbps speed offered by the Infinity range of BT.

It is also worth mentioning here that Ofcom has signed a deal with SamKnows, the technology experts to track particularly the superfast broadband internet connections of ISP bigwigs over the next couple of years.

Interestingly, a white box has been developed by Samknows that can be engaged in the home of the consumer to track the performance of the person’s broadband internet connection continuously. The consumer can consult the collected data using the box similar to a utility meter.

According to Alex Salter, the chief executive officer of Samknows in the forthcoming project they were looking to measure how the performance of the ISPs could improve as users switched to services that were being advertised as super fast.

The trials initially carried out across one thousand six hundred broadband connections in 2008 revealed that the average countrywide broadband access speed was just 4.3Mbps. This was something just above half what internet service providers based on ADSL technology have been promising.

However, it was pointed out by a popular broadband comparison website that the Whitebox could use data worth up to 2GB from the consumer’s quota as it received and transmitted data. Therefore, the website has advised the volunteers strongly not to carry on with it if the person has only a minimal usage allowance.

As a matter of fact, Enex Test lab, an Australian technology firm has been credited with the creation of the refreshing technology dubbed as eMetric System. The Australian com-pany has further claimed that it was being engaged in talks with the telecommunications watchdog in the United Kingdom, Ofcom, regarding the deployment of the technology in Britain.

According to Enex TestLab, the hardware designed by it packed the potential to measure as well as report on broadband and network problems, besides monitoring the network remotely to check service quality and latency.

Enex Test Lab’s director Matt Tett said that until then, the broadband consumers were left handicapped with inability to access a reliable test facility, which could carry on tests, analyses, and deliver reports independently on their broadband internet performance. He added that this had been potentially addressed by eMetric.

The website said in its report that the major agencies that featured in the news were 13 Group, IFPNL and BT, alongside the use of one technology; Gigabit Passive Optical Network technology to realise 100Mbps fibre to the home networks in the United Kingdom.

The website stresses a few significant published reports such as; Review of the GPON Market, GPON’s Competitive Networks and Interfaces of Business to Business. Although the website states that the articles are fairly heavy ones wading into a considerable amount of technical profundity, they also come up with a few points that would be of amusement to consumers.

According to the website, something worth special mentioning were the detailing of the reports on the possibility of GPON engaging the LLU (Local Loop Unbundling) technology that is currently being used by ADSL firms top expand the market, and more significantly, the relative cost of the GPON system.

Meanwhile, the UK Cheap Broadband also mentioned in the past in one of their blogs that the FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) technology was considerably cheaper than GPON, since the former’s engaging the existing copper lines in place of telephone lines, which meant that the length of fresh cable required to be laid was maintained to a minimum.

The telecoms watchdog has unveiled a set of fresh proposals predominantly with a view to improving the customer support offered by the various internet service providers operating in the United Kingdom.

It has been reported that the regulating body has called for the setting up of basic minimum standards for the handling of complaints in the country’s broadband internet industry. Besides this, it was also looking to provide additional information to make sure that the users were well aware of existing services for dispute resolution.

The regulator has been additionally pondering over ways to boost the transparency displayed by the internet service providers in the United Kingdom, regarding the performance levels.

According to the chief executive officer of Ofcom, Ed Richards, the regulating body wanted to improve the handling ways of the complained and queries made by the consumers in the country.

Richards added that the advantage was that the consumers were entitled to expect their broadband suppliers to address and try the complaints made by them, and where these could not be resolved, they ought to be made aware of the rights due for them of am independent and free broadband service for dispute resolution.

An Ofcom research had only earlier this week reported that the broadband internet services in the United Kingdom were among the most economical in the world.