Advertising watchdog taking aim at 'fibre' broadband marketing
So-called ‘fibre broadband’ is coming under the microscope of the Advertising Standards Authority, amid growing concerns that internet service providers are misleading consumers as to the nature of the internet technology they’re signing up for.
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A minute proportion of fast broadband connections in the UK are what could be described as true fibre optics - that is, the existence of a glass fibre cable all the way to an optical network terminal inside the customer’s house.
Most services marketed as ‘fibre’ actually use copper cable technology for the final connection from a street cabinet to the home.
The vast majority of those - including the connections sold by BT, Sky and TalkTalk - are delivered over BT’s Openreach network, which uses the old copper telephone network to make that last connection.
Liberty Global brand Virgin Media - which, in recent advertising, has dropped the ‘media’ from its name to call its product ‘Virgin Fibre’ - uses copper television cables for the final connection, which in many cases were laid some time ago by its broadcaster predecessors NTL and Telewest.
In a statement on Tuesday, the ASA said it was acting as a result of “evolving concerns” over the way fibre broadband services were being advertised, along with recent changes in government policy and regulation, which would result many more people having access to fast broadband services.
Recent policy papers made it clear, in the view of the government, that the word ‘fibre’ could only describe services that use glass cables from end to end, and the ASA was to look into whether it would allow service providers to continue using the word to describe the hybrid connections.