ASA Adjudication on British Telecommunications plc
British Telecommunications plc t/a
BT
81 Newgate Street
London
EC1A 7AJ
Date:
1 February 2012
Media:
Television
Sector:
Computers and telecommunications
Number of complaints:
12
Agency:
Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO
Complaint Ref:
A11-161806
Ad
A TV ad, for an internet service provider, featured a voice-over that stated, “Every city, every town, every home, is filled with an invisible network of competing signals which can make it hard to receive a clear signal for your internet, and can cause some routers to drop out." On-screen text stated “Wireless connectivity requires enabled equipment & range can vary according to home environment”. The voice-over stated, "BT’s signal is designed to avoid interference. Thanks to the new home hub with smart wireless technology." On-screen text stated “Compared to all other Broadband Providers”. The voice-over stated, "That’s why it’s the UK’s most reliable wireless connection...”
Issue
1. Nine complainants, who did not believe the claim "The UK's most reliable wireless connection could be substantiated, challenged whether it was misleading.
2. Three complainants, who believed the product could only avoid interference from Wi-Fi devices, challenged whether the claim “Every city, every town, every home, is filled with an invisible network of competing signals which can make it hard to receive a clear signal for your internet, and can cause some routers to drop out" could be substantiated.
3. One complainant challenged whether the ad misleadingly implied BT was the only internet service provider to offer a router that actively avoided interference.
BCAP Code
Response
1. BT said they based the claim "... the UK’s most reliable wireless connection...” on their Smart Wireless Technology, which allowed their Home Hub routers to automatically switch to the clearest wireless channel available. They said they carried out a market analysis which showed that no other broadband provider offered the channel selection algorithm that was implemented in the Home Hub 3, in the form of their Smart Wireless technology. They also said they conducted a series of tests to ensure that the Home Hub 3’s wireless connection performed more reliably than routers supplied by their major competitors. They said the on-screen claim "Compared to all other Broadband Providers" made clear that the claim was based on a comparison between their router and those supplied by other broadband providers, rather than all other available routers and also informed viewers that they had undertaken additional testing to demonstrate their Smart Wireless technology was effective in practice.
They said their router scanned for the best channel available, selected the clearest channel to emit a signal on, and then actively monitored its selected channel for any interference. They said, if interference exceeded a particular limit, the Home Hub 3 automatically switched to a different channel with less interference. They said, as part of their testing methodology, non-Wi-Fi devices consisting of a TV sender, a baby monitor and a video camera and two variants of the BT Home Hub and five routers provided by other broadband providers, were set up in a room representative of a typical British brick home. They said the non-Wi-Fi devices were selected as a result of an Ofcom study from 2009 which identified them as major sources of Wi-Fi interference. They said the results showed that, out of all the routers tested, the Home Hubs were the only routers that consistently avoided interference caused by non-Wi-Fi devices. They believed their market analysis and test results demonstrated that BT’s signal was the UK’s most reliable wireless connection. They said, although they only tested five routers, it was standard industry practice, when making comparative claims, to compare their products against the most similar products offered by the largest players in the market. However, they also said they would be happy to amend the on-screen text to state “Compared to all major Broadband Providers” to make the basis of this comparison clearer.
2. They said the routers tested were connected to their default settings. They also said their Smart Wireless Technology implemented in the Home Hub 3 allowed channels to overlap but still work. They claimed that most routers tended to use non-overlapping ones as default, but also had an automatic channel selection mode where they looked for other Wi-Fi networks in the area and chose the quietest one for themselves. However, BT claimed that competitors’ routers could not see interference from non-Wi-Fi devices and so ignored them in their decision making, causing them to lose connection. They said the BT Hub was unique in that it could see interference caused by both wireless Wi-Fi and non-Wi-Fi devices. They said the claim “Every city, every town, every home ..." was intended to convey that disrupted signals, caused by common household items, could interfere with neighbouring Wi-Fi signals and that this problem was more prevalent in built-up areas such as cities and towns. They believed the test demonstrated that their router avoided interference from non-Wi-Fi devices.
3. They said, although other UK broadband providers offered routers that could detect and avoid interference from other Wi-Fi devices, known as congestion avoidance, BT was the only broadband provider to offer Smart Wireless Technology which automatically selected and switched to a different channel to avoid interference from non-Wi-Fi devices. They said, because all Wi-Fi devices, including the Home Hubs and the other routers tested, were typically able to recognise other Wi-Fi signals on the same frequency, and co-ordinate with each other to avoid interference, they only tested non-Wi-Fi devices.
Clearcast said that at script stage they asked for guidance from their technical consultant before they approved the claims. They said he was content with the evidence that was supplied by BT.
Assessment
1. Upheld
The ASA noted BT carried out a market analysis which showed that no other broadband provider offered the channel selection algorithm that was implemented in the Home Hub 3, in the form of their Smart Wireless technology, and which enabled interference avoidance from non-Wi-Fi devices. We understood from BT’s response that the Home Hub 3 operated across three different channels, and scanned for and automatically selected the best channel available. We noted the test compared two variants of the Home Hub with five other routers supplied by five major broadband providers, by introducing interference from a TV sender, a baby monitor and a wireless video camera. We noted these non-Wi-Fi wireless devices transmitted within the same 2.4 GHz band range occupied by each channel setting for each of the routers tested. We also noted the Ofcom research suggested that the primary cause of Wi-Fi interference was a result of interference from non-Wi-Fi devices and that these included TV senders and baby monitors.
We considered that BT had demonstrated that their Home Hub 3 router was more reliable than other broadband providers’ routers in terms of maintaining connection despite interference from non-Wi-Fi devices transmitting in the same range. However, we considered that viewers would not necessarily understand from the presentation of the ad that the “competing signals” were non-Wi-Fi devices and that, by the reference to “wireless connection”, BT were referring to their wireless router only, and not to the totality of their broadband provision. We considered that this was further confused by the reference to broadband in the on-screen text that stated “Compared to all other Broadband Providers”. We considered that, although it was not BT’s intention, viewers were likely to infer from the context of the whole ad that the claim "The UK's most reliable wireless connection” meant that BT provided the most reliable wireless online experience. Because BT had not proven that the actual online experience was the most reliable, and because the ad did not contain a qualification to make clear that the “invisible network of competing signals” referred to signals emitted from non-Wi-Fi devices, and the claim “The UK’s most reliable wireless connection” referred to their Home Hub 3 router only, the claim was misleading.
On this point the ad breached BCAP Code rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising), 3.9 (Substantiation), 3.10 (Qualification) and 3.33 and 3.35 (Comparisons with identifiable competitors).
2. Not upheld
We understood the complainants believed that, although wireless routers were able to avoid interference from Wi-Fi devices, they were unable to avoid interference from non-Wi-Fi devices. We also understood that he believed the claim “Every city, every town, every home, is filled with an invisible network of competing signals which ... can cause some routers to drop out ... BT’s signal is designed to avoid interference” misleadingly implied that signals from non-Wi-Fi devices could cause routers to lose connection, and that BT’s router provided a solution to this. We noted BT said the claim was intended to show that interference, caused by common household items, created interference which could compromise a neighbouring Wi-Fi signal and that this problem was more prevalent in built up areas, because they were more likely to have a higher number of wireless devices in any given square mile. We noted the test introduced interference from non-Wi-Fi wireless devices, some of which caused some of the tested routers to lose connection. We considered that, because BT had demonstrated that interference from non-Wi-Fi devices could make it hard for some routers to receive a clear signal to connect to the internet and could cause some routers to lose connection, the claim “Every city, every town, every home, is filled with an invisible network of competing signals which can make it hard to receive a clear signal for your internet, and can cause some routers to drop out" had been substantiated. We considered that, although the whole ad did not make sufficiently clear that it referred to interference from non-Wi-Fi devices only, BT had demonstrated that interference from those devices could cause some routers to drop out and concluded that it was not misleading on those grounds.
We investigated this point under BCAP Code rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising), 3.9 (Substantiation) but did not find it breach.
3. Upheld
We understood from BT’s response that, although other broadband providers offered routers that could avoid interference from Wi-Fi devices, they were the only broadband provider in the UK to offer a router which avoided interference from non-Wi-Fi devices. We considered most viewers would understand the claim “Every city, every town, every home, is filled with an invisible network of competing signals which can make it hard to receive a clear signal for your internet, and can cause some routers to drop out" to mean that some routers were unable to maintain connection following interference, while others were able to. However, we noted the ad referred to “an invisible network of competing signals” but did not clarify that these related to signals emitted from non-Wi-Fi devices only. We noted BT said, because all routers typically avoided interference from Wi-Fi devices, they tested the reliability of the Home Hub 3 against non-internet Wi-Fi devices only. However, we considered that most viewers would not know that all routers avoided interference from Wi-Fi devices and considered that in the absence of qualification, viewers would understand the voice-over “BT’s signal is designed to avoid interference ... That’s why it’s the UK’s most reliable wireless connection ...” to mean that BT was the only broadband provider to offer a router which avoided interference in general, regardless of its cause. Because the ad did not make sufficiently clear that the claim was based on avoiding interference from non-Wi-Fi devices only, we concluded that the ad was misleading.
On this point the ad breached BCAP Code rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising) 3.10 (Qualification) and 3.38 (Other comparisons).
Action
The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told BT not to repeat the claim "The UK's most reliable wireless connection” in future unless they provided adequate evidence to substantiate it, or qualified the basis in which the claim was made.