Advanced Television

Virgin Media criticised by ASA

October 16, 2008

Virgin has been reprimanded by regulators for misleading consumers about its broadband speeds in a recent advertising campaign. In response to a complaint by Virgin's rival BSkyB, the Advertising Standards Authority ruled Virgin's print and poster advertisements did not make sufficiently clear that customers could experience connections below the advertised 20 megabits per second.

Meanwhile, Virgin Media has criticised some broadband speed tests, saying they rely on “dirty data”. It said current tests were often inaccurate.

It is concerned that tests for 50Mbps (megabits per second) services, which are starting to launch, will be even more inaccurate. Online speed tests generally work by sending a file to a computer and timing how long it takes. This so-called payload is often too small, according to Virgin, to give an accurate result.

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