iBurst speed claims not allowed
In an Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA) complaint Mr Michael van Dijk submitted that although he resides in close proximity to an iBurst tower and has excellent signal strength, his access speeds do not exceed 250 Kbps and is nowhere near the claimed ‘17X faster than dial-up’.
iBurst claims on its website that you can: “Replace your dial-up [with]… iBurst up to 17x faster!”
iBurst submitted documentary evidence from Mr Peter Chitamu (Pr.Eng.,Ph.D) and Mr David Vannucci (MSc.) of Dovetel Consulting Engineering CC in support of the claim.
According to the ASA website Dr Chitamu and Mr Vannucci conclude that, “… it is correct to say that the iBurst network can achieve a peak data rate of 1,061 kbps which is just over 18.9 times the dial up peak rate of 56 kbps. This speed is however achievable under ideal channel conditions only on the down link.” They submitted that “the actual user experience can be much less than the peak data rate indicated.”
“The documentation submitted by Dovetell therefore confirms that the claimed speed is achievable but under ideal conditions and only on the ‘downlink’ (transmissions from Base Station to User Terminal). While the experts therefore submitted that this speed is achievable, it appears that it is very conditional,” the ASA said.
The ADSL directorate pointed out that it needs to establish:
- Can the respondent’s service deliver speeds 17X faster than regular dial-up?
- If so, are these speeds available to more than an insignificant proportion of customers?
The ASA was not convinced that the advertised iBurst speeds are available to more than an insignificant portion of the broadband provider’s subscriber base. “There is nothing before the Directorate to confirm that a significant number of people can achieve this speed under reasonable circumstances,” the ASA states.
The ASA hence ruled that iBurst must withdraw its claims with immediate effect and that it may not be used again in its current format until new substantiation has been submitted, evaluated, and a new ruling is made.
This ruling comes shortly after another ruling against Telkom’s ADSL advertising campaign claiming certain speeds. MTN and Vodacom were also on the receiving end of rulings against their 1.8 Mbps HSDPA claims.
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