Posted: 09th Mar, 2011 By: MarkJ

The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a regional press (newspaper) advert for Three (3) UK. The mobile operator used the advert to claim that it was the country's "
No.1 network for mobile internet speed".
However the claim, which was only supported by figures from an independent YouGov Mobile Broadband report, was deemed to be insufficient because the
survey's results were not publicly available for an effective comparison.
ASA Statement
We considered the claims in the ad, "Better for smartphones" and " ... No.1 network for mobile internet speed and value ... ", were likely to be understood by consumers to compare Threes products and services with those of their competitors. We noted the ad included Threes web address and reference to the YouGov report.
We also noted, however, the report was not publicly available and details of the comparison were not available on the Three website. We noted YouGov could confirm the categories in which Three had been ranked top but that that was not made clear in the ad and further details of how the comparison was arrived at were not available.
We considered that that information should have been made available for the purpose of verifying the comparison and the ad should also therefore have included reference to the means by which that information could be reviewed.
On this point, the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 3.35 (Comparisons with identifiable competitors).
The advert has since been banned and Three (3) has been told to make sure that any future claims include properly identifiable comparisons.