Ofcom bungles Tiscali broadband ad ruling

Ofcom has bungled a ruling against Tiscali UK after ticking off the ISP by mistake.

Yesterday, the giant communications regulator slapped Tiscali UK over its recent TV ads for its broadband service. Four viewers had complained that the ads were misleading because, in their experience, Tiscali UK's broadband service was often sluggish and slow. Ofcom agreed with the viewers ruling that Tiscali UK had misled punters.

But now the ruling has been pulled. Ofcom published the decision by mistake after officials had agreed to postpone their ruling pending further investigation.

In a statement Tiscali UK said: "Ofcom withdrew this decision on Friday pending further response from Tiscali. The decision was published incorrectly."

Only one of the four complaints received by Ofcom was an "issue of speed connection", it said. "The other complaints were due to other technical problems relating to PC settings, modem and a BT network problem."

No one from Ofcom was available for comment at the time of writing. ®

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