A crackdown on advertised broadband speeds has revealed that customers are paying the UK's biggest providers over £20 a month to receive the lowest acceptable internet speed.

From today broadband firms are banned from selling internet packages with "up to" speeds and must instead show the average speed received at peak times, under new Advertising Standards Authority rules.

The change has seen many advertised broadband speeds slashed by nearly half overnight.

Basic internet packages from Sky, BT, EE, Plusnet and Now Broadband which were previously advertised as delivering up to 17 Mbps, are now advertising speeds of just 10Mbps, which is the minimum internet speed most households need to meet their needs, according to Ofcom.