Ad description
A leaflet for 6Gi, a home broadband provider, seen on 29 September 2023, featured text on the front which stated “Fixed Wireless Broadband* Full Fibre Speed Broadband from £21.99 per month. Based on a 24-month contract”. The asterisk linked to small print at the bottom of the leaflet which stated “*6Gi broadband is delivered using fixed wireless and full fibre technologies. It is not provided over a mobile network and does not make use of 4G, 5G or future 6G cellular technologies”. Text on the back stated “100 Mbps download was £26.99 per month, now £21.99 per month. No gimmicks. Terms and conditions apply”.
Issue
The complainant, who believed the advertiser did not offer full fibre broadband with corresponding download speeds, challenged whether the claim “Full Fibre Speed Broadband” was misleading and could be substantiated.
Response
6G Internet Ltd t/a 6Gi said the network over which they provided fixed wireless broadband services used both full fibre and fixed wireless technologies. They explained that the core and distribution networks were full fibre, in contrast to the local access networks, which used a wireless radio connection known as fixed wireless technology. That was a different wireless technology to those used in mobile networks. They said the wireless element covered a short distance, which was on average, a 500m distance between the fibre optic distribution network and a service address. They acknowledged the product itself was a fixed wireless broadband product and not a full fibre one.
They believed consumers would understand the claim “Full Fibre Speed Broadband” to mean the speed of their advertised 100 Mbps fixed wireless broadband service delivered download speeds which were equivalent to full fibre download services.
They said the inclusion of the phrase “Fixed Wireless Broadband”, which appeared prominently at the top of the ad, made it clear to consumers that the product was a fixed wireless broadband product and not a full fibre product. They said the inclusion of the word “speed” in the claim when read in conjunction with the phrase “Fixed Wireless Broadband” made that distinction clear. They believed both those phrases would have been read and considered by consumers together when viewing the ad, and that in any case, the most prominent text featured was the price claim. That was due, to their view, that the contrast between white text on a dark blue would be greater than green text on a dark blue background, because it was a greater contrast which made the text more prominent and improved readability.
They added that small print at the bottom of the ad, which stated “6Gi broadband is delivered using fixed wireless and full fibre technology”, made that distinction further evident by outlining that a combination of technologies were used in providing the service and that mobile technologies were not used. They said their website provided additional details about the product and how the service was delivered to customers. 6Gi said although they could provide full fibre broadband, also known as fibre to the premises (FTTP), they did not advertise those services. When viewed in its entire context, they believed the ad clearly stated that the service on offer was fixed wireless broadband.
Although 6Gi explained they offered a range of fixed wireless products with download speeds of up to 300 Mbps, they said the ad only related to the 100 Mbps package. They acknowledged that although 100 Mbps was at the lower end of what was considered full fibre speed, it was still within the required range to claim the product offered the same speed as full fibre broadband. They believed their product was therefore comparable to broadband services marketed as full fibre, such as BT’s full fibre 100 product.
They said the ad was posted to homes in Blackburn as that was an area where their 100 Mbps product could be installed, and that, aside from unforeseen technical faults, that speed was guaranteed, and in some cases, even higher speeds were achieved. 6Gi said if a download speed of 100 Mbps could not be achieved when tested via a speed test during the installation process, they would not install the product.
They had 789 customers on their network with a 100 Mbps package, of which 366 had joined in 2023. They provided a random sample of 49 of their customers from Blackburn who joined the network in that year. Data from that sample showed a speed of 100 Mbps was achieved for all customers at the point of installation. They said the average current speed across the sample was 115 Mbps, in which over 90% of customers received at least 100 Mbps speeds. They explained that the lower speeds were due to faults, rather than network limitations, which they were in the process of rectifying.
Assessment
Upheld
The ASA understood that the term full fibre, also known as fibre to the premises (FTTP), related to a product which supplied broadband directly to a home through fibre optic cables, whereas a fixed wireless broadband product used radio frequencies to transmit signals through the air without any wires or cables.
We considered consumers were unlikely to know the technical differences between a fixed wireless broadband product and a ‘full’ fibre broadband product, but that they would have been aware of fibre services in general and associated them with newer technology and faster download speeds. Despite stating their core and distribution networks used fibre optic cables, 6Gi acknowledged their service was a fixed wireless product and not a full fibre one.
We considered consumers were likely to interpret the headline claim “Full Fibre Speed Broadband”, within the context of the ad, to mean that the service being offered was a full fibre product which achieved download speeds and other service properties equivalent to other full fibre products. Due to the prominence of the larger text and different font colour used for that claim, we considered consumers would be drawn to it first when viewing the ad. Although we acknowledged 6Gi’s position that they were simply comparing the speed of their product to the speed of full fibre ones, we considered the initial impression consumers would have had from the ad was that the service being advertised was itself a full fibre product.
Although we acknowledged that the ad also included the claim “Fixed Wireless Broadband”, which also appeared prominently, but was not presented in a stand-out colour, we considered its placement above the headline claim “Full Fibre Speed Broadband” likely created a significant degree of ambiguity for consumers when viewing the ad. We considered the small print, which stated “6Gi broadband is delivered using fixed wireless and full fibre technologies” did not sufficiently explain how the service worked and again implied that it was a full fibre product. The small print also stated “It is not provided over a mobile network and does not make use of 4G, 5G, or future 6G cellular technologies”, which we considered added to the impression that the service was not wireless and that, in some capacity, it utilised fibre to the premises FTTP technology.
We acknowledged 6Gi provided data on a small sample of 49 customers, which showed a download speed of 100 Mbps was achieved for all those customers at the point of installation, and that 90% of those customers continued to achieve that speed. We understood that 100 Mbps was at the lower end of speeds typically delivered using full fibre broadband. Notwithstanding that, because we considered consumers were unlikely to interpret the claim “Full Fibre Speed Broadband” to mean the product was not full fibre but that it offered speeds equivalent to full fibre products, we considered that data was not relevant.
For those reasons, we considered the ad gave the overall impression that the product being advertised was full fibre broadband. As that was not the case, we concluded the ad was likely to mislead consumers.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1, 3.3, 3.4.1 (Misleading advertising), and 3.7 (Substantiation).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told 6G Internet Ltd t/a 6Gi to ensure future ads did not state or imply their service was a full fibre broadband product when that was not the case.
