AT&T has brought a challenge to the National Advertising Division (NAD) of BBB National Programs, against Cox Communications’ internet service.
The challenge asked for the following:
- Discontinue the claim “Multi Gig Speeds Everywhere” or modify it to accurately reflect the availability of its 2 Gbps tier service.
- Discontinue the claim “Get into the fast lane with Cox Business and get speeds that are up to 20X faster than T-Mobile and AT&T 5G Internet” in markets where AT&T offers a fiber product with speeds faster than 100 Mbps to small business customers or modify its advertising to avoid conveying certain implied messages.
AT&T’s argument says that while Cox advertises “Multi gig speeds everywhere,” the company only offers multi-gig download speeds, not upload speeds, and those speeds are not actually available everywhere. The NAD found that one advertisement made it sound like Cox offers both download and upload speeds of at least 2 Gbps and recommended that the company edit the messaging.
Cox also uses the messaging “Get into the fast lane with Cox Business and get speeds that are up to 20X faster than T-Mobile and AT&T 5G Internet.” AT&T obviously wanted to challenge the claim that mentions them by name. It was found that Cox used AT&T’s 5G internet for the comparison. However, AT&T also offers fiber in many areas, and that package is faster than Cox Internet for business owners. The NAD recommended changing messaging in those areas where AT&T Fiber is available to avoid an incorrect message that AT&T 5G is the fastest option from AT&T.
In its advertiser statement, Cox stated that while it disagrees with certain aspects of NAD’s decision, it will comply with NAD’s decision and “is a strong supporter of self-regulation and will take NAD’s recommendations into account in developing its future advertising.”