Communications giant 3 recently filed a complaint over advertisements run by rival provider Vodafone, and Vodafone has now amended its advertisements – does this mean that 3 has won?

Vodafone has recently expanded its mobile broadband network, and has also been running advertisements claiming that it offers the fastest broadband network of up to 7.2mbps. However, following the launch of the campaign a rival mobile broadband provider, 3, stated that the claims being made by Vodafone were misleading. 3 filed complaints about the advertisement with the GSM Association as well as with the Advertising Standards Authority.

3 claimed that Vodafone was advertising far faster speeds than the majority of consumers would receive, and this made the claims and the advertisements misleading. Officials from 3 suggested that Vodafone leave any speed based figures out of their advertisements altogether, because the claim of up to 7.2mbps was so far off the speed that most consumers would actually get.

A recent report has now confirmed that Vodafone has removed the claim of up to 7.2mbps from its advertisement. It will not be using the speed to headline its marketing campaign. However, whilst Vodafone has confirmed that it is no longer going to use this speed in its advertisements authorities have still not actually reached a conclusion with regards to 3’s complaints about the advertisements.

An official from Vodafone has said that the reason behind the changes to its advertisements and marketing campaign was nothing to do with the complaint made by 3, but was in fact related to a shift in the market from business to consumer. Officials from Vodafone also said that their marketing and advertising will not be focusing on the time that it takes to perform certain tasks rather than concentrating on download speeds, with one official stating: “Figures such as 7.2Mbps don’t mean enough to enough people. We need to talk in a mass-market language.”