BT broadband ad banned for misleading customers

The BT press, TV and internet ads in August and September last year variously promised “unbeatable” speeds, “three times faster fibre optic broadband” and “four times faster broadband” for activities including uploading photos and videos to Facebook, downloading albums and streaming HD movies.

Virgin Media and three other complainants challenged whether the “unbeatable” claims and promises of faster broadband could be substantiated.

BT said an Ofcom report showed Infinity had an average download speed of 33.8 Mbps and an average upload speed of 8.8 Mbps compared with the national average of 6.8 Mbps for download speed and between 0.4 and 1.6 for upload speed.

However, the Advertising Standards Authority said it had not seen evidence that BT’s download speeds were unbeatable, and concluded that the claims had not been substantiated and were misleading.