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BT in hot water over 'misleading' broadband advertising
Marketing News |
26/08/2010
BT has been forced to back down on a marketing campaign for its home broadband services, after the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld a series of complaints against the firm.
The telecoms giant was reported to the industry regulator by rivals TalkTalk, Sky Broadband and members of the public over its claim to offer "consistently faster broadband even at peak times".
Complaints were upheld against a television advertisement, three radio ads and a national press ad promoting BT Retail's Total Broadband service.
The ASA found that BT had made unsubstantiated claims over the quality of its broadband offering, and misled consumers over the benefits likely to be obtained.
A spokesperson for the firm, which is currently investing up to £2.5 billion in the UK's national broadband infrastructure, expressed "disappointment" at the adjudication.
"At the time the ads appeared, BT had just started rolling out a new up to 20Mbps broadband service across the country," they stated.
"We wanted to highlight the higher speeds available in newly enabled exchange areas offering customers consistently faster web browsing in comparison to BT's up to 8Mbps service. There was certainly no intention to mislead."
Just last month, UK internet service providers were criticised by Ofcom for over-selling their broadband services.
The communications regulator found that 97 per cent of consumers are failing to receive the broadband download speeds they signed up for.
Ofcom reported that the average broadband deal advertisement promises an 11.5 Mbps connection speed, but in reality, web users are only able to download at a rate of 5.2 Mbps.
Posted by Stephen Wilkinson
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