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BE to amend "up to 24 Meg" ad following complaints

The ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) have upheld a complaint which stated that a press ad for ISP Be Unlimited is misleading.

A complaint by NTL and a member of the public believed that Be’s advert, headlined “up to 24 Meg broadband” was misleading because the headline speed is unattainable to most users.  With distance from an exchange, signal degrades quickly, lowering the maximum speed available. 

Be Unlimited said although the distance from an exchange affected overall broadband speeds, the results of their speed tests showed a significant proportion of users achieved over 16 Mbps, especially within 1km of their local exchange.

However, the ASA stated that while they accept that speeds of less than 24 Mbps were unlikely to meaningfully affect the users’ overall experience of the service so long as they were over 8 Mbps, some consumers would reasonably expect to achieve speeds in the range of the headline speed and might feel misled if they could only achieve speeds of around 8 Mbps.

Be Unlimited have co-operated with the ASA’s recommendations to state in the body copy of future ads that top speeds varied significantly, in particular because of a user’s distance from their local exchange.

Related links

• Full ASA adjudication for Be unlimited’s broadband ad