Bulldog fingered for misleading radio ad

Someone's in the doghouse

By Tim Richardson • Get more from this author

Posted in Telecoms, 6th July 2005 11:10 GMT

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Bulldog is in the doghouse after two radio ads plugging its 4 meg broadband service were found to mislead punters.

The Cable& Wireless-owned Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) operator bragged that "Bulldog is Britain's fastest broadband for under 20 quid".

"Four megabytes of unlimited access giving you more of what you want, whenever you want it," said the ISP. "At Bulldog we like to keep things simple. Giving you the fastest broadband for under 20 pounds. No limits. No strings. No waiting."

But one punter complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) saying that as a user of the service he had never experienced 4 meg broadband.

Another challenged Bulldog's claims that the service was available for under £20 a month because punters also had to sign up the ISP's phone line at a cost of £10.50 a month.

Rejecting Bulldog's explanation the ASA said the LLU operator must make it clear that punters also need a phone line from Bulldog for the service to work.

And on the issue of speed, the ASA added: "We noted there were several factors, such as the number of users using the service and technological limitations, which could influence the speed of the advertiser's broadband service and that as a result not all consumers would be able to achieve a super-fast download speed of 4 meg.

"We therefore believed that, without qualification, listeners were likely be misled by the claim," it said. ®