BT gets its knuckles rapped

[Rik]

The BBC reports that:

An advert for telecommunications firm BT has been banned for misleading customers over broadband speeds.

In a TV advert, a voice-over said BT is "rolling out up to 20 meg speeds" to give "consistently faster broadband".

The Advertising Standards Authority, which received 17 complaints, said it had not seen sufficient evidence to support the claim and concluded that the advert was likely to mislead.

BT said it was disappointed by the ASA's adjudication.

After the complaints were made, BT told the ASA that the sequence shown in the advert had not been intended to be an actual comparison.

The advert - an instalment in an ongoing campaign about "Adam and Jane" - showed Adam being shown around a property by an estate agent as he talked to his partner, Jane, on his mobile.

She was seen viewing the house online from her home computer, loading a website faster than the estate agent at peak time, before a voiceover said: "BT is rolling out up to 20 meg speeds to give you a consistently faster broadband throughout the day even at peak times."

Some felt the 20Mb (megabits per second) claim was misleading and could not be substantiated.

Others believed surfing a typical website would not be any faster with a 20Mb service than it would with BT's original 8Mb service.

And three people said the speed at which the "Jane" character navigated various web pages was faster than anyone could achieve at any connection speed.

In reaching its decision, the ASA said: "Because we had not seen sufficient evidence to support the claim that BT's new broadband service was consistently faster than its existing 8Mb service even at peak times, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead."

The advertising watchdog said viewers could expect the internet speed demonstrated by "Jane" to be available to them, adding that this was not the case.

It concluded: "We noted BT's new service was available to fewer than half of all households and the roll-out, increasing that figure to 75%, was anticipated to take around two years.

"We noted that a significant proportion of the population could not get the service at the time the ad appeared and therefore considered the ad should have made that clear. Because it did not, we concluded that it was likely to mislead."

[Technical Ben]

 
That add annoyed me, but only because BT prioritise their own traffic on their network. They throttle connections, and generally do the opposite of what the commercial showed. That and the fact that the estate agent is probably with BT as well.

[Gary]

When I saw this add it got my back up (odd saying) the claims were a big pile of poop to those who know how  ADSL MAX and ADSL 2+ system works, even a little, knowledge shows BT's flaws in this campaign, and the adverts with that damn couple are more sickening the Nescafe ones years back. I was so chuffed to see the add got booted  

[Rik]

So three cheers for the ASA for once.

[Simon]

But I thought all websites in films and on TV, loaded instantly, and with a 'blip' noise.  Also, people get full replies to emails and messages within half a second of sending theirs.  I can't see the problem with BT's ad. 

[Rik]

That's because we're IDNet customers.

[gizmo71]

I can't decide who to dislike more, Adam and Jane or Howard (and all the other numpties) from Halifax.

[Rik]

Give it time, Giz, the list will get longer.

[Fox]

Come the revolution, Howard is the first against the wall and "I am a celebrity get me out of here" will have a more dungeony feel to it

[Lona]

The guy with the terrible singing voice on the "Gocompare" adverts really annoy me.

[Glenn]

He is an opera singer - Wynne Evans

[Lona]

He is an opera singer - Wynne Evans

I still can't stand him.

[Niall]

I didn't pay any attention to the advert unless 'Jane' was in it. She's purty

[Rik]

I still can't stand him.

I don't mind him, it's the ads I can't stand.

[pctech]

I wonder how much bandwidth BT Vision takes up on the 21CN backhaul.

[Rik]

It's got to be a significant amount, Mitch.

[pctech]

I did ask about the service a while back at a BT stand 'up the city' as regards the minimum downstream and was told it was 4 Meg IIRC.

I said I didn't get anywhere near that and they asked for the phone number, I declined and started to move away, the woman chased me half way up the next part of the corridor until I turned round and said firmly but politely that I was not really interested in taking up the service because I was happy with my current ISP and did not wish to move to BT.

[Rik]

Aw, you should have let them make fools of themselves, Mitch, it's your duty. 

[pctech]

 

I have put a message into Zen support to see if they are taking part in the FTTP trials but not heard anything yet.

I read somewhere AAISP are but my pockets aren't deep enough to go with them.

[Rik]

They're bound to be, but as you say, the price will be steep. 

[pctech]

I do like the off peak allowances and if I worked standard office hours then maybe but not when I'm often at home at some point during the daytime.