BT: Advertising Standards Authority lets Virgin Media off the hook over broadband speeds

Jul 02, 2008 (M2 PRESSWIRE via COMTEX) -- VMED | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- The Advertising Standards Authority have upheld a complaint from BT about Virgin Media's alleged broadband speeds with the challenge centred round an advertising campaign, which ran in the national media and featured download times for songs and TV shows.

BT argued that Virgin's usage caps meant that downloads during peak times would be slower than advertised.

The ASA have ordered Virgin to make it clear that speeds will vary.

Martin Warner, co-founder of Technology of Tomorrow 2008 (www.tot2008.com) and leading entrepreneur in new media and technology says that the issues behind Virgin Media's claims to broadband speed are greater than most people realise.

"The broadband market becomes increasingly competitive and is constrained by the limits of UK national infrastructure, primarily laid down by BT in the past. There should be a greater focus on traffic throttling' controlled by Internet Service Providers - this is a major issue that needs to be regulated as opposed to left to specific ISP's until we get a fibre optic infrastructure in the UK. The issue is that certain websites are demanding mass bandwidth at once, like YouTube, and currently there are only a couple of approaches - slow the user's bandwidth cap in peak times or ban certain sites that incorporate high volume file sharing," Warner said.

"There is a big debate between BT and ISP's about who should pay to get fibre optic implemented into the UK, like Verizon is doing in the US. This is not moving fast enough as the government hasn't stepped in to a very key issue. The problem is that very few understand the ramifications and measurable benefits to getting this done for UK businesses and life at home. So BT are not committing to budget or timeframe, and ISP's can't afford or don't want to jump in."

"As the market gets competitive and more disputes arise, UK customers and businesses will suffer. The only real answer today is for the government to subsidise and partner with ISP's and BT to get this done," he said.

For journalists wanting comments, interviews and quotes, Martin Warner is the co-founder of Technology of Tomorrow 2008 (www.tot2008.com) and a leading entrepreneur in new media and technology, is available.

CONTACT: Craig Stephenson / Vicky Lyons, Flame Public Relations Tel: +44 (0)20 7233 7578 e-mail: press@flamepr.com

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