Devilfish
13th February, 2008, 03:55 PM
Controversial Virgin Media adverts claiming its broadband is "officially the fastest and most reliable" do not break the rules, the Advertising Standards Authority announced today.
A series of radio, national press and billboard adverts also made an issue of Virgin's fibre optic cable compared with competitors' copper wire.
Posters and press ads were headed "Truth, Lies and Broadband" and stated: "...right now, in terms of broadband, there are two types of household in the UK. Half of us can access cable broadband. This is delivered via a fibre optic cable - meaning it is officially the fastest and most reliable available...
"The other half of the country can get a standard connection - also known as ADSL (which stands for something tedious). Most companies, like BT, AOL, Tiscali, Sky, TalkTalk and so on, only offer this.
"We provide an award-winning version for people who can't get cable. ADSL uses your phone line so it slows down the further you live from the telephone exchange. This means you might not be getting the speed you've paid for."
They attracted 22 complaints to the ASA including from Sky and TalkTalk.
Sky said it believed Virgin used copper wire between street cabinets and the home. It also thought the adverts may give "the misleading impression that cable broadband speeds would never slow down, and that Virgin Media customers would always be able to achieve consistent broadband speeds".
Sky and TalkTalk, among other complaints, also pointed out ADSL coverage was not "half" but about 98%. And they said Virgin was only "the fastest and most reliable", at the time, with its 10Mbps product, not the standard 2Mbps.
However, the ASA upheld none of the complaints.
Virgin told the regulator that for the last stretch of connections to homes copper-coated coaxial cables were used. The ASA decided: "We considered that most consumers would understand the term 'copper wire', in the context of these ads, to refer to the copper wires of an ADSL connection.
"Because we considered that the ads were making a comparison between the different cable and ADSL network technologies, and because the co-axial section of the cable network was a small proportion of the overall fibre optic connection, we concluded that the claims... were unlikely to mislead."
On claims about the speed it noted explanations in the small print and said: "We considered that the basis of the comparison with Virgin's 10Mbps cable broadband was clear, and was supported by independent data from Epitiro."
Virgin today welcomed the result which is the latest in a string of rows between it and Sky over comparative advertising.
"We feel it is important for consumers to understand that whilst we offer both cable and ADSL broadband, our unique cable network offers the best performing broadband speeds, regardless of where a person lives from the exchange," said a spokesman.
"We continue to offer our customers the best broadband service and speeds and have recently announced plans to upgrade our 4Mb customers to a 10Mb service, free of charge, as well as aiming to have our new 50Mb service available to over 9m homes by the end of the year."
A series of radio, national press and billboard adverts also made an issue of Virgin's fibre optic cable compared with competitors' copper wire.
Posters and press ads were headed "Truth, Lies and Broadband" and stated: "...right now, in terms of broadband, there are two types of household in the UK. Half of us can access cable broadband. This is delivered via a fibre optic cable - meaning it is officially the fastest and most reliable available...
"The other half of the country can get a standard connection - also known as ADSL (which stands for something tedious). Most companies, like BT, AOL, Tiscali, Sky, TalkTalk and so on, only offer this.
"We provide an award-winning version for people who can't get cable. ADSL uses your phone line so it slows down the further you live from the telephone exchange. This means you might not be getting the speed you've paid for."
They attracted 22 complaints to the ASA including from Sky and TalkTalk.
Sky said it believed Virgin used copper wire between street cabinets and the home. It also thought the adverts may give "the misleading impression that cable broadband speeds would never slow down, and that Virgin Media customers would always be able to achieve consistent broadband speeds".
Sky and TalkTalk, among other complaints, also pointed out ADSL coverage was not "half" but about 98%. And they said Virgin was only "the fastest and most reliable", at the time, with its 10Mbps product, not the standard 2Mbps.
However, the ASA upheld none of the complaints.
Virgin told the regulator that for the last stretch of connections to homes copper-coated coaxial cables were used. The ASA decided: "We considered that most consumers would understand the term 'copper wire', in the context of these ads, to refer to the copper wires of an ADSL connection.
"Because we considered that the ads were making a comparison between the different cable and ADSL network technologies, and because the co-axial section of the cable network was a small proportion of the overall fibre optic connection, we concluded that the claims... were unlikely to mislead."
On claims about the speed it noted explanations in the small print and said: "We considered that the basis of the comparison with Virgin's 10Mbps cable broadband was clear, and was supported by independent data from Epitiro."
Virgin today welcomed the result which is the latest in a string of rows between it and Sky over comparative advertising.
"We feel it is important for consumers to understand that whilst we offer both cable and ADSL broadband, our unique cable network offers the best performing broadband speeds, regardless of where a person lives from the exchange," said a spokesman.
"We continue to offer our customers the best broadband service and speeds and have recently announced plans to upgrade our 4Mb customers to a 10Mb service, free of charge, as well as aiming to have our new 50Mb service available to over 9m homes by the end of the year."