Full Fibre ISP Hyperoptic Pull “UK’s fastest broadband” Claim

A complaint by full fibre broadband ISP Vodafone has prompted rival Hyperoptic to remove a statement on their website which, when written alongside their symmetric speed 1Gbps package, claimed that they offered the “UK’s fastest broadband.” The case was “informally resolved” through the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

Hyperoptic were one of the very first consumer broadband ISPs to offer symmetrical speeds of 1Gbps to UK consumers (in our view they remain one of the best too). In the recent past they’ve sometimes also described themselves as offering the “UK’s fastest broadband” or being the “UK’s fastest provider,” but as we’ve pointed out before they aren’t the only gigabit ISP around (e.g. B4RN has been doing it since 2012) and today the market is full of similarly capable rivals (see here).

On top of that a couple of providers, such as B4RN (here) and Telcom’s Black Fibre division (here), have even begun to offer the first commercially available 10Gbps service to homes. Sadly all of these networks currently suffer from very limited coverage, which makes it hard for any of them to truly claim the “UK’s fastest” crown, without first adding a lot of caveats.

Naturally at ISPreview.co.uk we keep a close eye on the market and so it didn’t go unnoticed when a number of Hyperoptic’s “UK’s fastest” claims suddenly began to vanish. Various past press releases, website mentions and a 2018 YouTube video featuring the “UK’s fastest tap dancer” (you can still see this on Facebook, until they erase that too) have all gone or been changed to adopt “hyperfast” instead of “fastest.”

A spokesperson for Hyperoptic informed us that their “messaging was updated when other providers starting offering speeds of 1Gb” and that they were not aware of a “recent ASA complaint,” although this is only partly correct since they’ve been making “UK’s fastest” claims since long after smaller rivals began to offer packages at the same speed.

We queried all this with the ASA and were told that Vodafone, which felt the statement was misleading and could not be substantiated (they of course have a 1Gbps service too and play in some of the same areas via Cityfibre), raised a complaint against the claim on Hyperoptic’s website last September 2019 (the wording appeared on their 1Gbps product page for standalone broadband).

Hyperoptic confirmed to the ASA that it was only meant as a top-parity claim and they agreed to amend the ad to reflect that. As a result the ASA “considered the matter resolved and closed the case informally.” As we’ve said before, it’s generally wise for ISPs to avoid making any absolute claims about service performance or price (fastest, cheapest, most reliable etc.) as, unless you’re willing to examine the entire market with a fine tooth comb, then it will always be difficult to 100% substantiate.

Over the years lots of ISPs have tried and failed to make similarly broad claims (including all of the major operators), which eventually get knocked down by the ASA.