Virgin quotes misleading broadband speeds

 

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Posted on 2 Jul 2008 at 11:48

Virgin Media has been exposed for conveying misleading download times in a recent advertising campaign.

In its recent 'Hate to wait?' commercial, Virgin publicised three broadband packages - M, L and XL - and claimed customers could download TV programmes in as little as three minutes and songs in two seconds.

BT took exception to the campaign, claiming that the advertised speeds were not accurate as Virgin caps customers' speeds during peak times. While Virgin admitted that it does limit speed from 4pm to 9pm, its subscriber traffic management mirrors the typical usage of its customers.

Virgin argued that those who purchase the basic package only use their PCs for email and browsing during peak time, and would not be affected by the cap. Customers who purchase the XL package are more likely to download larger files during peak time, and the traffic management has a much higher threshold for those users.

However, the caps meant that M package customers would not be able to download TV shows in the advertised 26 minutes during peak hours and a typical show would breach Virgin's peak time traffic management threshold of 300 MB.

Virgin has been increasingly facing reprimand from the ASA of late, with complaints held on six counts last year for misleading advertising, and a recent complaint held against the company's inappropriate letter design for its postal ads.

The case is the latest in a barrage of complaints that have seen independent competition regulator Ofcom call upon ISPs to sign up to a code of conduct. The code requires them to give an accurate estimation of the line speed a consumer would receive based on their distance from the exchange and is currently a voluntary scheme, but Ofcom has warned it is prepared to make participation mandatory.