Entagroup News

  • Entanet warns of affects on resellers with new broadband advertising guidelines

    A (Advertising Standards Authority) and CAP (Committee of Advertising Practice), which will govern the advertising of ‘unlimited’ broadband packages and the advertising of broadband speeds.

    Commenting on the new guidelines, Entanet’s Head of Marketing, Darren Farnden, said: “Although we commend the ASA and CAP for attempting to protect consumers from potentially misleading broadband advertising, we believe these guidelines will actually confuse them even further.”

    The new guidelines will require ISPs to advertise headline speeds based on the maximum speed 10% of their customer database can actually achieve. This speed must be reviewed every six months. Currently, the speed is usually advertised based on the maximum the technology can support, e.g. ‘up to 40Mbps for FTTC services’. The new guidelines also require the headline speed to be recalculated depending on the target audience of the marketing communication. So, if a provider is running a national and regional campaign, they will be required to advertise the two speeds that are relevant to each target audience.

    “Under the new guidelines, end users could potentially receive various adverts quoting differing speeds depending on whether or not the campaign is regional or national, quoting peak or off-peak speeds and depending on which wholesale provider’s broadband service they decide to take. They will also be shown a warning message advising that they may not actually receive the quoted speed and that this speed is representative of just 10% of the provider’s customer database. Even those within the industry could struggle with all of that – talk about information overload!”

    These guidelines could also have serious implications for rural based resellers who could appear to provide less competitive services compared to national or urban based competitors. The rural reseller’s customer base is likely to have a lower actual speed than those in more urban locations or when compared to national sample. This could lead to rural based resellers fairing worse in advertising campaigns despite the fact that they are actually using exactly the same services, making it harder for some of the smaller ISPs to compete.

    Farnden also raised concerns over the potential adverse effect these guidelines could have on the current digital divide in the UK, stating: “The guidelines could in fact negatively affect the digital divide the Government is so keen to close. For example, ISPs could reject orders from customers who will experience low speeds due to their rural location in order to protect and maintain their advertised speeds. Ultimately this could mean less investment in the infrastructure within rural communities and an increased digital divide.”

    To read the article in full visit http://opinion.enta.net.

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    • 03 Oct 2011

    • Posted in Entanet