Advertising standards body pulls up Bulldog for misleading ad |
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Thu, 07 Jul 2005 14:05
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The Advertising Standards Authority yesterday pulled the leash of Bulldog for making false claims in its radio ads. The Cable & Wireless-owned ISP’s radio spot had been claiming to offer “Britain’s fastest broadband for under 20 quid”.
Many users complained that they never experienced 4 megabytes on Bulldog’s service, despite the claims in their advertisement. The service is part of C&W’s £190m plans announced in April to invest in Next Generation Network (NGN) over the next three years in order to stay ahead in the UK telecom market. It is a different matter that Swedish-owned start-up Be has already stolen a march on it by announcing 24 meg broadband, in London to begin with.
People complained that the Bulldog advertisement was misleading, particularly where they claim to give you the fastest broadband “for under 20 pounds. No limits. No strings. No waiting.” It doesn’t say that one has to sign up the ISP’s phone line for £10.50 a month. The ASA tut-tutted at Bulldog’s explanations and demanded that the advertisement be very clear. The ads must mention that one needed a phone line from Bulldog to get the broadband service for £20 a month, the ASA said.
Some subscribers also complained that the service was so slow it could hardly be called 4 meg broadband. Bulldog explained that the speed depended on certain factors, such as technological limitations and the number of subscribers using the service, that could affect the speed of the broadband service. The company reluctantly agreed that not all subscribers could get the super-fast download speed of 4 megabytes per second.
The company has already installed its local loop unbundling system (LLU) kit in 400 of British telecom’s exchanges in order to provide broadband service directly to subscribers.
The current leader among broadband providing ISPs is UK Online that provides Londoners with 8 meg broadband. In three months’ time if Be succeeds with its 24 meg broadband plans, UK Online’s 8 meg could become history.
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