Vodacom has to withdraw claims that it has South Africa’s “fastest” and “widest” 3G network as these have not been substantiated and are therefore in breach of the code of advertising practice.
These are the findings of the Advertising Standards Authority, which has instructed Vodacom to desist from making the claims until it is able to verify them “unequivocally”. The rulings follow complaints by rival MTN.
A third complaint against Vodacom by MTN — protesting against Vodacom’s claim that it has the “fastest network for smartphones” — was not upheld. The authority found that this claim by Vodacom was substantiated.
In a complaint dated 7 November, Webber Wentzel attorneys, on behalf of MTN, lodged a complaint against a Vodacom television advertisement that includes a voice-over that claims Vodacom has the “fastest 3G network” and the “widest 3G network”.
MTN argued that although there could be regions in South Africa where Vodacom has the fastest 3G speeds, this is not necessarily true for the country in general. According to MTN, tests done by Ericsson, using Ookla, showed that in Gauteng MTN had faster 3G downlink and throughput speeds than Vodacom in certain periods.
In the Western Cape, MTN was faster than Vodacom during January 2013, and had been faster since August 2013 to the end of the reflected period. In KwaZulu-Natal, MTN outperformed Vodacom during November 2012, and was on par with Vodacom during February 2013. MTN also had lower latency in many instances.
The Advertising Standards Authority said that MTN went to great lengths to explain why and how speed tests and results can be manipulated, and why Vodacom would not be able to substantiate its claim of having the fastest 3G network in general.
Vodacom, through ad agency Ireland-Davenport, argued, among other things, that the nature of the Ookla tests ensures that any variable that could affect the test results is inherently included. “MTN is incorrect in alleging that ‘too many variables are at play’,” it said. “In addition, the magnitude and nature of Ookla tests negate any possible attempt at manipulation. Finally, the Ookla results are derived from random sampling as well, which further negates any effort to manipulate the results in the manner that MTN suggests.”
Vodacom said MTN “appears to dismiss of the legitimacy of the Ookla data, while at the same time it uses the same Ookla data in support of its complaint”.
In its ruling, the authority said that for Vodacom’s claim to be true, it must show that its 3G network is the fastest.
Michael Charnas of Catalyst Research & Strategy, which conducted survey work for Vodacom, explained that the operator used a large sample of Ookla tests generated by users across various devices, across the country, and over a period of several months. Confidential test results from Atio, which conducts benchmarking, were submitted in support of the claim.
According to the Advertising Standards Authority, Charnas concluded that, on the whole, Vodacom outperformed its competitors in terms of overall broadband speed, and concluded that it “has the fastest network as well as the fastest 3G network”.
However, the authority is not convinced. “From the submissions it appears that the mean and/or average values depicted in the relevant results include those obtained from the respondent’s more advanced, and faster LTE network. In the absence of any clarity on the impact these results may have, it would be incompetent of the directorate to simply assume that results obtained on the LTE network did not skew the overall speed results.
“While the report appears to show that the respondent outperformed its competitors overall (a finding that the directorate is not expressly making at this time), it does not specifically talk to how the respondent’s 3G network fared against the 3G networks of its competitors.
“Given this, and given that the claim is specifically contextualised in terms of offering the ‘fastest 3G network’, the directorate is not in a position to accept that this claim has been unequivocally verified. Accordingly, the claim that the respondent offers the ‘fastest 3G network’ is currently unsubstantiated, and in breach of … the code.”
MTN had asked that sanctions be imposed on Vodacom, but did not explain on what basis it believed these were called for. “The directorate is not currently of a view that additional sanctions other than the withdrawal of the claim are warranted.”
MTN’s complaint against Vodacom’s claim that it has the “widest 3G network” was also upheld by the authority. It said Vodacom did not provide “clear and unequivocal verification” of this claim. — (c) 2013 NewsCentral Media
