Wanadoo ads ruled misleading

The Advertising Standards Authority has criticised ISP Wanadoo for its advertising promoting "up to 8 Meg" broadband.

ISPs including BT, Tiscali and Bulldog and members of the public complained that TV and press advertising that started in October 2005 used the phrase "Up to 8 Meg [..] Broadband" were misleading because they implied that most people would be able to get the speeds.

Two members of the public said that they made enquiries about "up to 8 Meg" broadband but were told that it would not be available to them for a number of months and that the fastest they could get from Wanadoo at the time of enquiry was 2 Mbps.

Wanadoo told the ASA that it was rolling out 8Mbps broadband throughout the country from October 2005. They said that the first stage of this was the unbundling of 154 local exchanges that would cover 11.5 per cent of the population. However, during the final testing phase in October it discovered a design issue that meant that not all of these 154 sites could go 'live' together and, as of late November, 113 sites, covering 8.5 per cent of the population were 'live'.

The ASA said that it did not consider that there was “an adequate indication that the service was available to such a limited number of people at the time that it was first advertised or that it would not be available to a large number of people for some time”.

In a separate ruling, Orange objected to a national press ad for T-Mobile's "web'n'walk" internet service, which claimed, "The internet wherever you are".

The ASA upheld Orange’s complaint on the grounds that the service was not capable of being accessed anywhere in the UK.

http://www.asa.org.uk