Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Comcast Should Stop Claiming It Has 'Fastest Internet,' Ad Board Rules (arstechnica.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the unsubstantiated-claims dept.

The advertising industry's self-regulation body said Comcast should stop saying in advertisements that it "delivers the fastest internet in America" and the "fastest in-home Wi-Fi." The evidence Comcast uses to substantiate those claims is not sufficient, ruled the National Advertising Review Board (NARB). Ars Technica reports: Verizon had challenged Comcast's advertising claims, leading to today's ruling. Comcast said today that it disagreed with the findings but will comply with the decision. Comcast used crowdsourced speed test data from Ookla to make its claim about Xfinity Internet speeds. "Ookla's data showed only that Xfinity consumers who took advantage of the free tests offered on the Speedtest.net website subscribed to tiers of service with higher download speeds than Verizon FiOS consumers who took advantage of the tests," today's NARB announcement said. The Ookla data's accuracy wasn't questioned, but it was judged to be "not a good fit for an overall claim that an ISP delivers 'America's fastest Internet.'" The ad review board said Comcast's "America's Fastest Internet" claims gave the impression that Comcast offers "overall Internet speed superiority in all tiers of service that it provides." The Comcast ads also give the impression that Comcast "delivers the fastest download and upload speeds," whereas the Ookla data showed that the top 10 percent of Verizon FiOS customers had higher upload speeds than the top 10 percent of Comcast customers.

6 of 36 comments (clear)

  1. Those commercials annoyed me from day one by jfdavis668 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That annoyed me, implying that the fastest wifi speed meant the fastest Internet speed. I hate deceptive advertising crap like that.

    1. Re:Those commercials annoyed me from day one by David_Hart · · Score: 3, Interesting

      That annoyed me, implying that the fastest wifi speed meant the fastest Internet speed. I hate deceptive advertising crap like that.

      What's more annoying is that Verizon stopped their roll-out of FIOS in the North East after they got what they wanted, to encourage Comcast to come to the table and sell the Wireless spectrum that Verizon wanted. Once the deal was done, no more FIOS for you...

      In fact, a Boston roll-out announced over the summer appears to be Verizon agreeing to a subsidized plan to expand FiOS to the home. However, investigations in to what exactly they are doing seem to indicate that the majority of the fiber being rolled out is specifically so that they can expand their wireless infrastructure. Their plan is to use 5G to connect homes instead of direct fiber to each house (less cost). The problem is that Wireless, as any WiFi expert can attest, sucks as far as reliability, interference from weather conditions and other sources, etc.

      https://arstechnica.com/inform...

    2. Re:Those commercials annoyed me from day one by stephanruby · · Score: 2

      Also, I use Xfinity, but one thing that happens with Xfinity service is that it shuts itself down frequently. And services like Ookla don't measure uptime. Ookla only measures speed when Xfinity is actually working.

      Which means the only thing Xfinity has to do get good stats on Ookla is to shut down connections entirely when it knows it's not going to get good speeds.

  2. Fastest? by Karlt1 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Even if you are one of the "lucky" few to have Comcast Gigabit internet, you still have a limit of 35Mbps upload. That's nothing compared to the 400Mbps/400Mbps I get with the bog standard AT&T 802.11ac router that comes with their Gigabit internet. Wired I routinely get 900/900.

    AT&T's advertised rate is $70. The amount I pay every month is $70. No additional fees.

  3. On the positive side... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The Advertising Board did authorize Comcast to use the tagline "Worst Customer Support Of Any Currently Operating U.S. Business"

  4. Comcast: 2014 worst company in America by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Consumerist stories about Comcast.

    One of the stories: Comcast: 2014 worst company in America. In 2014, Comcast was selected as worse than Monsanto!

    Comcast is disliked so much, the company is now calling itself Xfinity.

    In my experience, it is Comcast policy to be abusive to customers. One result is that Comcast employees abuse Comcast.

    I wish the U.S. had a real government, instead of a help-the-rich-get-richer government. Then government policies would prevent companies from abusing their customers.