// Home / News

BT claims another scalp in ASA battle

By Barry Collins

Posted on 9 Sep 2009 at 14:18

BT has chalked up another victory over a rival broadband provider, courtesy of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

Britain's leading ISPs regularly use the ASA as a means to score points off one another.

This week, it's Sky's turn in the dock. Sky ran a series of ads claiming that customers could save £185 a year on broadband and phone calls by switching from BT.

BT complained the Sky ad was misleading, because it failed to mention factors such as the "superior" router and security services BT offers to customers on its Option 2 broadband package.

The ASA ruled that the 802.11n router was "unlikely to be materially significant to many consumers considering a switch", however it did warm to BT's security software pleas.

Sky offers customers a year's worth of free security software, while BT's security suite runs for the entire duration of the customer's contract. "We considered that the loss of the security package after 12 months was a significant factor likely to influence consumers' understanding of the offer, both in terms of the quality of the package and the value of the saving available to them after 12 months," the ASA said.

The complaint was upheld and Sky was, of course, told not to run the adverts again. Two other BT complaints about Sky connection fee and call charges were not upheld.

BT clearly has a bee in its bonnet about rivals omitting to mention its security software in their adverts. TalkTalk had its knuckles rapped last week following a similar complaint from BT.

Subscribe to PC Pro magazine. We'll give you 3 issues for £1 plus a free gift - click here

From around the web

User comments

Erm...

So basically, BT realises it's service is pants, and decides that instead of competing against other ISPs, it will just go over adverts with a fine tooth comb and take them to court.

And people wonder why i'm with O2 as my ISP

By hjlupton on 9 Sep 2009

Rowan Parker

I think its awful anyone would chose an ISP over the security software that came with it. Hence why I'm with an ISP that offers no security (MY (i.e. not theirs) router has a firewall and av is a separate issue. What else is needed? My friend had BT with its strings (Yahoo, having to log on to access the internet through a proxy), it was slow and unreliable.

By rowanparker_uk on 9 Sep 2009

As a mac user I do not need AV software. I have my own router and firewalls, I do not need such software as part of my ISP contract so for me it is irrelevant. Linux users with their own routers are in the same position.

By Amnesia10 on 9 Sep 2009

Thing is, posters on PC Pro forums are unlikely to need "free AV software" from BT because we're likely already using it, or a variant of it.

But for people who don't know such offers are surely of value. Heck, most of the population just wants their "internet" to work, let alone understand that the reason yahoo.com takes ages to load is because BT are redirecting through a vast internal network of caching proxy servers using an antique version of BGP.

By bubbles16 on 11 Sep 2009