T-Mobile has brought a challenge to the National Advertising Division (NAD) of BBB National Programs for Boost Mobile to modify its claims about the breadth of its 5G coverage and claims that the network is new.
Boost Mobile covers 99% of Americans, but that coverage includes both the company’s own 5G network and carrier roaming agreements with T-Mobile and AT&T to extend coverage. In some areas, customers will only receive 4G or LTE coverage.
A decision summary from the NAD says the organization agreed with the challenge, noting: “NAD found that Boost Mobile’s evidence, while providing a reasonable basis for the claim 99% nationwide coverage overall (and 98% coverage with 5G), did not provide a reasonable basis to support a claim that Boost Mobile offers 5G coverage to 99% of the country (whether solely from its own network of towers or in conjunction with its roaming partners). In addition, NAD found that the evidence detailing the benefits of the network built by Boost Mobile did not support the full breadth of comparative benefits touted by Boost’s advertising.”
NAD recommended that Boost Mobile modify the wording of its messaging to be clearer about coverage and benefits. It was also recommended that Boost Mobile stop using the word “new” when describing the network. The decision summary says “NAD concluded Boost Mobile’s “new” claims exceed Federal Trade Commission Guidance that limits “new” claims to a period of six months, and that its “America’s newest” claim conveys a comparative performance superiority message that the evidence did not support.”
Boost Mobile voluntarily changed its messaging and, while the company disagreed with some of the recommendations, said that the company “agrees to comply with NAD’s recommendations and will incorporate NAD’s recommendations into future advertising.”