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Virgin Media is not speedy enough for ad watchdog
ADVERTISING WATCHDOG the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has ruled that Virgin Media is not as speedy as it claims to be and should no longer go around making such misleading statements.
The ASA upheld five out of ten complaints, some of which were filed by two ISPs, BT and XILO, and some by consumers. Complaints mostly concerned whether the Virgin Media cable services were faster than the broadband services that their rivals offered, and is it claimed.
The claims appeared in a range of formats, from flyers to print and television ads and often featured Mexican mouse character Speedy Gonzales. In them Virgin Media made a number of claims, with the ISPs thought were unfair.
BT made the most challenges to the adverts, including the fact that Virgin Media's speed boasts did not take into consideration its own Infinity service, which offers speeds up to 40Mbits/s, and that any comparisons were not made on a like to like basis, for example cable was compared against ADSL.
The rival ISP also complained that the ads failed to clearly state the differences in the like for like comparisons.
XILO challenged the claim, "The fastest [broadband] in the UK" in one of the adverts, saying that it was misleading, "because they understood that 'bonded broadband' services were able to deliver faster speeds than Virgin Media", said the ASA in its ruling.
Other claims from Virgin Media, such as the assertion that it is the best service for gaming were also challenged, because, BT "believed it suggested internet connection speed was the only factor in achieving optimum game performance. They believed that other factors such as latency and jitter as well as factors not influenced by the internet service provider (ISP) also had an impact," the ruling explains.
Although the Advertising Standards Agency agreed with a lot of the claims, it did not uphold them all. For example, it said that it was probably fair to compare cable and ADSL services. Overall, it ruled, the Virgin Media adverts must never appear again in their current form. µ
Tags: Internet
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I see BT and XILO are talking out their arses again. BT Infinity may be able to offer upto 40Mb/s but as with all ADSL services it is an UP TO figure, not a near 100% figure (I consistently get 9.5Mb/s + on my 10Mb/s virgin cable) and as Rob says, you cannot compare bonded lines against standard broadband because of the requirement of additional hardware, lines, line rental and broadband charges to get anywhere near cable speeds.
Simply put, Virgin cable broadband is THE MOST CONSISTENT, FASTEST AND BEST VALUE broadband in the UK at the moment bar none.
....fail to mention that boned broadband would require two or more phone lines and trip or more ADSL or VDSL connections, all starts to get pretty expensive compared to 25 quid for 50 meg or 35 quid for 100 meg broadband (granted it's about another 12 quid for a phone line).
Where I live if I wanted to get 50 meg over ADSL (no VDSL or ADSL2+ in my area) I'd be looking at 7 phone lines and ADSL connections bonded... Granted that would give me a higher upload speed than I get on Virgin but at maybe 10 times more than what I'm currently paying!
Rob