The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is mistaken in the Vodacom broadband debate, say analysts.
The authority ruled that Vodacom must immediately remove the term “broadband” from all its advertising, since it cannot prove that it in fact delivers broadband across its entire network.
However, executive head of corporate communications Richard Boorman says it is too early for the operator to comment on potential changes to its advertising.
“We are challenging this decision by the ASA, since we have proven that our network does indeed support the speeds necessary to define our service as broadband.”
Vodacom has not yet said on what basis it is going back to the ASA.
A consumer complaint was lodged against a Vodacom advertisement that appeared in the Sunday Times in May, says the ASA.
It adds that the advert contains the wording “get up to 60% more Internet, news, e-mail, music and sport. Now at the fastest broadband speed available.”
The complaint was that the advert is misleading as broadband is “generally taken to mean over 32KBps”, whereas Vodacom “consistently deliver less than 20KBps”.
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