In a win for T-Mobile over challenger Charter Communications, the National Advertising Division (NAD) of BBB National Programs determined that T-Mobile's "no data caps" claim for its Home Internet service was not misleading.
NAD also found that T-Mobile's advertising “did not reasonably convey a disparaging message” that competing cable internet providers, including Charter, require long-term contracts and “exploding bills,” as compared to T-Mobile's Home Internet service.
The determination is notable because T-Mobile is going after the same home internet market that cable companies, like Charter through its Spectrum brand, have been serving for years.
It’s doing so more aggressively than ever, with T-Mobile intending to attract 7 million to 8 million fixed wireless access (FWA) customers by 2025. In a TV commercial that aired during the Super Bowl, actors Zach Braff and Donald Faison sang the praises of T-Mobile Home Internet “without the BS.”
Speed claims
It wasn’t all rosy for T-Mobile. Charter argued that because T-Mobile Home Internet customers share the same network as mobile users but are prioritized last, consumers may experience much slower speeds than advertised during times of congestion. T-Mobile countered that such congestion is unlikely to occur in practice since it only offers Home Internet in areas with excess cell tower capacity.
As more crowd-sourced data gets collected, more information may come to light to support the 100 Mbps claims, but NAD said that T-Mobile didn’t currently have the evidence it needs for the claim. NAD recommended that T-Mobile discontinue claims that its Home Internet offers customers consistent speeds over 100 Mpbs or modify those to better reflect the range of speeds that customers can expect on a consistent basis.
In addition, NAD recommended that T-Mobile:
- Modify its "best speeds" claim to make clear that "best speeds" is limited to those speeds available to T-Mobile Home Internet customers.
- Modify the claim of "5G Internet" to make it clear that its Home Internet service is available either on a 5G or 4G LTE network and avoid the implication that all T-Mobile Home Internet customers will always receive a 5G signal.
Because T-Mobile’s Home Internet connection shares its cellular network, the speeds consumers experience may be affected by the number of people using the cellular network through a process called deprioritization, NAD noted.
The organization pointed out that data caps and deprioritization are two different concepts, with deprioritization indicating a reduction of a customer's speed and data caps referring to a limit on the amount of high-speed data the customer can use before speed or data limits are imposed.
In the end, NAD found that while T-Mobile deprioritizes Home Internet customers during times of congestion, it doesn’t impose a data cap, concluding that the advertiser's "no data caps" claim was not misleading.
‘Exploding’ bills
In the area of long-term contracts and “exploding” bills, NAD considered whether T-Mobile makes implied claims that cable internet providers, including Charter, require long-term contracts and exploding bills, as compared to T-Mobile's Home Internet service.Interestingly, NAD noted that nothing in the challenged advertisements mentioned Charter or any cable company at all.
NAD determined that these claims did not reasonably convey a disparaging message that Charter required long-term contracts and exploding bills and, therefore, these claims were not misleading. During the proceeding, T-Mobile voluntarily discontinued the claim "average speeds over 100 Mbps for most customers," as well as certain comparative speed and pricing claims vs. Spectrum Internet, according to NAD.
T-Mobile told NAD that it will comply with its recommendations, and although it disagreed with NAD’s conclusion about its “5G Internet” claims, it will take NAD’s recommendations into account in future advertising.