Issue
A series of commercials promoted Tiscali Broadband as providing high speed
internet packages. Four viewers considered this misleading as their
experience was of a frequently slow internet access speeds.
Response
Tiscali explained that it routinely upgraded its network and Virtual Paths
(VP). Earlier in the year it carried out significant multiple upgrades to
improve the service.
However, despite confirmation to the contrary, Tiscali discovered that the
company carrying out the work on their behalf had only completed
approximately three quarters of the VP upgrades. This was not discovered
until 30 April, two weeks after the advertising campaign had finished. The
remaining upgrades were completed by 5 May.
Decision
We appreciate that the reason some customers experienced a slow internet
connection did not become clear until the advertising had finished.
Nonetheless, while the commercials were on air, Tiscali had received a
number of customer complaints itself and was therefore aware of a problem.
As the service could not be supplied everywhere, Tiscali ought to have
removed or qualified the advertisement until it was able to fully supply the
claimed ilhigh speed internetlm access. We found the advertising in breach
of Advertising Standards Code Rule 5.1 (Misleading advertising)
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/bulletins/adv_comp/a12/a12.pdf
Regards
Sunil
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