BT and Telewest complained about press advertisements promoting Wanadoo's 512k broadband service, headlined "Full speed broadband for just 拢17.99 a month". They objected because faster broadband speeds are available to consumers.
Wanadoo, which rebranded from Freeserve in April, defended the ad saying it attempted to clarify what the term "broadband" means for consumers faced with myriad definitions.
Wanadoo was particularly critical of products with speeds as low as 150k being promoted as broadband because this not much faster than a dial-up connection.
However, the Advertising Standards Authority did not accept Wanadoo's defence. It said: "Because broadband was available at the faster speed of 1Mb per second and 2Mb per second, the watchdog concluded that to claim 512kb per second was 'full speed broadband' was misleading."
Wanadoo said it would comply with the ASA's ruling and remove the claim from further advertising.
The company said: "We accept and will adhere to the ASA's decision on our use of the term 'full speed' broadband, but believe we were right to introduce this term to try to combat some of the confusion in the UK market about what 'broadband' actually means."
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