After the story published by exchange4media last month, a consumer complained against the Airtel 4G advertisement to ASCI, and received a response from ASCI saying that they have advised Airtel to change the ad
Last month, exchange4media published a report stating that ASCI’s Consumer Complaints Council had upheld complaints against 114 out of 144 advertisements. Out of this, ads of three of the major telecom operators like Vodafone, Idea and Bharti Airtel were pulled up for what ASCI classified as misleading content. As a result, the advertisers were forced to remove those portions of the ad which couldn’t be substantiated with proper proof.
Also Read: Vodafone, Airtel, Idea ads under ASCI scanner
After the story, a consumer complained against the Airtel 4G advertisement to ASCI, and received a response saying that they have advised Airtel to change the ad.
As per CCC decision, the complaint was upheld. Here are the excerpts for the decision:
“The CCC viewed the print advertisement and considered the Advertiser’s response as well as the opinion of the technical expert presented at the meeting. The supporting documents provided by the advertiser do not mention “fastest network”. The Annexure I clarifies that the numbers are meant to be taken as such only in favourable conditions and also states that the average rates are lower than this peak rate and are difficult to predict because they depend on a multitude of operational and network factors. The major factors are physical propagation environment and network congestion. Thus, a favourable location in a lightly loaded 3G network can certainly give a better network performance than a congested 4G network access at the cell edge. The advertiser should read conditions 1 and 2 listed in page 56 and 57 of Annexure I which should repeal such false claim of being the “fastest network ever”.The response provided by Advertiser shows that in the same favorable conditions, 4G speeds are three times that of 3G. However, it is well known that the data-rate in such networks is logarithmic in the received SNR (signal to noise ratio). It is also known that the SNR typically falls of at an exponential rate of 2.2 to 3.0 with distance. Thus a 4G end-user at 3_ distance to the base-station than a 3G one has less data-rates to claim. Clearly the 4G challenge can be easily broken in download speeds by using a 3G phone only in favorable locations. So the aim of the challenge is not very clear. The advertisement also contains statements like `a movie in 3 minutes', album `upload in 1 minute', statements which are clearly false is many contexts, unless qualified with statistical support/disclaimers. The CCC concluded that though 4G provides better services than 3G under the same operating conditions, it is not right to claim it as “the fastest network ever”. The claim in the Ad, “Airtel 4G is the fastest network ever” and “If your network is faster, we will pay your mobile bills for life”, is misleading by omission in the absence of appropriate disclaimers in the print, TV , hoarding advertisements itself. The advertisement contravened Chapter 1.4 of the Code.
“We have advised the Advertiser to withdraw or to modify appropriately the said advertisement before the October 7, 2015 or seek a review of the decision. If you continue to see the advertisement after the due date kindly bring the same to our notice.”
- See more at: asci directs airtel to “withdraw or modify” 4g ad in a week
