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Cornered! Telstra to appeal misleading Next G ad ruling: not a good idea
Cornered! Telstra to appeal misleading Next G ad ruling: not a good idea | Telstra to appeal misleading Next G ad ruling: not a good idea |
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| Written by Stuart Corner | |
| Thursday, 06 December 2007 | |
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Page 1 of 3 Don't get me wrong I think Next G is a fine network and its extensive and high speed data service coverage a great asset to Australians who need to be online when off the beaten track. I've used it myself from a camping site in the Snowy Mountains and for several hours uninterrupted travelling up the Hume Highway. It even works continuously through some of the tunnels in the Sydney rail system! But it does not work everywhere in Australia. I think coverage is about 25 percent of the landmass. The only company that could make the claim "coverage everywhere you need it" with any real claim to accuracy would be a satellite operator. The ACCC did not let Telstra get away with this for very long and on 24 August it issued a press release saying "Telstra has withdrawn and amended a series of television advertisements promoting its Next G mobile network after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission raised concerns that the advertisements may mislead consumers about the coverage available on the network." ACCC chairman, Graeme Samuel, said: "The ACCC had particular concerns about Telstra's unqualified use of the taglines 'Everywhere you need it' and 'Get the coverage you need with Telstra's Next G network', when the whole of Australia is not covered and coverage is not always available where consumers need it." The ACCC was also concerned that Telstra's television advertisements conveyed the impression that service quality issues such as call interference and call drop-outs would not happen on the Next G network. "An important message to any one making bold claims in their advertising, as Telstra has done, is that the message conveyed to consumers and the goods or services ultimately delivered to those consumers must match." |
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