Tech
The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a complaint from Telewest about an advertisement from BT for its broadband internet services.
The advert featured a photo of a baby and said: "...Meet Andres Felipe Beltran. Born 4.01am, 26/02/02. BT has connected over 60% of Britain's homes and offices to broadband exchanges ... With broadband the connection is permanently on, so Andres will never endure the squawk of the dial-up tone. Neither will he spend all Sunday afternoon downloading the latest film clip, because his connection is up to 40 times faster..."
Telewest challenged BT's claim that consumers could receive a service "up to 40 times faster" that dial-up speed. BT replied by saying that the 40 times faster claim was based on a 2 Mbps Ethernet service that domestic customers could choose if they wanted to connect several home PCs to one line. The ASA however rejected this explanation, noting that the 2 Mbps service was primarily a business service, and the speed of domestic customers' services was at 500kbps. Because the Authority considered the advertisement implied the "40 times faster" claim was standard across both domestic and business services, the Authority decided the advert was misleading and asked BT to amend it with the help of the Committee of Advertising Practice Copy Advice team.
Telewest Broadband's sales and marketing director, David Hobday, said: "BT's been caught trying to pull a fast one. Consumers are having a hard enough time getting their heads round broadband, without BT getting its sums wrong.
"We're trying to make our broadband services as approachable as possible and by sticking to the facts consumers can choose what's right for them."
The operator has recently launched a 1Mbps domestic cable modem service.
The advert featured a photo of a baby and said: "...Meet Andres Felipe Beltran. Born 4.01am, 26/02/02. BT has connected over 60% of Britain's homes and offices to broadband exchanges ... With broadband the connection is permanently on, so Andres will never endure the squawk of the dial-up tone. Neither will he spend all Sunday afternoon downloading the latest film clip, because his connection is up to 40 times faster..."
Telewest challenged BT's claim that consumers could receive a service "up to 40 times faster" that dial-up speed. BT replied by saying that the 40 times faster claim was based on a 2 Mbps Ethernet service that domestic customers could choose if they wanted to connect several home PCs to one line. The ASA however rejected this explanation, noting that the 2 Mbps service was primarily a business service, and the speed of domestic customers' services was at 500kbps. Because the Authority considered the advertisement implied the "40 times faster" claim was standard across both domestic and business services, the Authority decided the advert was misleading and asked BT to amend it with the help of the Committee of Advertising Practice Copy Advice team.
Telewest Broadband's sales and marketing director, David Hobday, said: "BT's been caught trying to pull a fast one. Consumers are having a hard enough time getting their heads round broadband, without BT getting its sums wrong.
"We're trying to make our broadband services as approachable as possible and by sticking to the facts consumers can choose what's right for them."
The operator has recently launched a 1Mbps domestic cable modem service.
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