Comcast was told to tone down some of its messaging so that it doesn’t give the impression that consumers will save massive amounts of money by switching to Xfinity.
In this case, Verizon challenged assertions made by Comcast’s comparison of different 5G plans – its single 5G plan versus two of Verizon’s mid-tier plans, according to the National Advertising Division (NAD) of BBB National Programs. NAD assessed whether the claims in a “Comparisons” commercial were misleading.
NAD found that “although it is unlikely that any reasonable consumer would expect to save enough money that they could literally purchase thousands of concert tickets or dozens of bags of groceries as depicted in the commercial, they may still take away a message that they can obtain massive savings from switching to Xfinity,” the organization said.
Accordingly, NAD recommended that Comcast modify its advertising, such as by adding qualifying language to quantify the actual savings a consumer could expect. It also recommended that ads disclose that an Xfinity Mobile subscriber must also be an Xfinity Internet customer.
Verizon had challenged the claims made by Comcast, which is notable in part because Verizon provides the underlying network for Comcast’s Xfinity Mobile product/service via an MVNO deal. Plus, wireless carriers like Verizon and T-Mobile increasingly are going after entrenched cable subscribers with their respective brands of Home Internet service using fixed wireless access (FWA).
Verizon CEO on cable's role
As is often the case during Q&A sessions with investment analysts, Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg was asked about the relationship with cable during Wednesday’s Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference. Verizon has MVNO relationships with both Comcast and Charter Communications.
He said cable is an important part of Verizon’s strategy to have one network that serves as many connections as possible to get the best return on capital.
When cable companies add wireless customers, they’re on Verizon’s network as well, he said.
“When we talk about net adds sometimes, we need to remember that many of those net adds in the market, that's in the switcher pool, they come to the Verizon network, but they are not branded Verizon,” he said, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript. “So we feel good about that relationship. It's an important enterprise relationship with the cable guys. We have always treated them as a really important enterprise customer and we'll continue to do so.”