Cox Communications has come out on top in the latest round of the broadband advertising wars.
AT&T had appealed Cox’s “Gig Speeds Everywhere” claim in TV and radio ads to the advertising self-regulating body, the National Advertising Division (NAD) of BBB National Programs.
In a decision reported Wednesday (October 26), NAD said Cox had provided a “reasonable basis” for that express claim of delivering gigabit speeds everywhere, as well as the implied comparative claim the Atlanta-based MSO can provide all of its customers with those speeds while AT&T can't provide them to its customers.
The ad in question featured a supposed text conversation between Cox and AT&T that NAD said conveyed that message.
NAD based its decision on evidence Cox provides gigabit speeds to almost any consumer it serves and to all customers in the areas where it ran the ads. NAD also said it accepted the Cox claim that less than half of AT&T Fiber customers have access to gig speeds because of the limited availability of the telco’s fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) service.
NAD, though, did recommend Cox modify the claim to make sure consumers know the gig speed applied to downloads only and not to give the impression, which was unsupported, that AT&T does not offer speeds faster than 5G in areas where it competes with Cox.
Cox said it would comply with the recommendations. ■
