{"id":264067,"date":"2018-06-11T17:58:03","date_gmt":"2018-06-11T15:58:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=264067"},"modified":"2018-06-11T18:36:10","modified_gmt":"2018-06-11T16:36:10","slug":"the-difference-between-vodacom-and-mtns-best-network-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/264067-the-difference-between-vodacom-and-mtns-best-network-claims.html","title":{"rendered":"The difference between Vodacom and MTN’s “Best Network” claims"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA) has ruled<\/strong><\/a> that Vodacom\u2019s claim it was South Africa\u2019s best network for three years in a row was misleading and must be retracted.<\/p>\n

This is the latest in a long string of complaints lodged at the ASA related to \u201cBest Network\u201d claims in South Africa.<\/p>\n

In the advertising which led to the complaint, Vodacom relied on customer satisfaction survey results from the South African Customer Satisfaction Index (SAcsi) for its claim.<\/p>\n

Vodacom previously relied<\/strong><\/a> on results from speed tests by Ookla, MyBroadband, ATIO, and others for its \u201cbest network\u201d claims.<\/p>\n

When these speed test platforms showed that Vodacom no longer had the best network, however, the company moved to using SAcsi.<\/p>\n

This created a situation where network quality tests by\u00a0MyBroadband<\/strong><\/a> and P3 Communications<\/strong><\/a> showed MTN had the best network, while Vodacom claimed to have the best network based on a consumer survey.<\/p>\n

Vodacom and MTN\u2019s advertisements, which ran within a week of each other in February, are shown below.<\/p>\n

\"Best<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

The difference between the claims<\/h3>\n

Consulta, the research company behind the SAcsi ratings, explained that its research is based on the internationally-licensed methodology that measures customer satisfaction.<\/p>\n

The 2017 SAcsi report for mobile networks provided an index for the industry and reported on the index scores for 2016 and 2015, it said. Vodacom won in all three years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe SAcsi adopts a wider definition of the term Network, which includes the quality perceptions of technology components, products, services, and operations of the mobile networks,\u201d said Consulta CEO Adre Schreuder.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does not only measure the technical GSM infrastructure of the mobile network, but includes network quality and performance as part of a much larger set of metrics.\u201d<\/p>\n

MTN\u2019s claims are, in turn, based on the network quality measurements by MyBroadband and German-based P3 Communications.<\/p>\n

The table below provides a summary of the differences between Vodacom and MTN\u2019s \u201cBest Network\u201d claims.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Difference between Vodacom and MTN’s Claims<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Metric<\/strong><\/td>\nMTN<\/strong><\/td>\nVodacom<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Which research is used<\/strong><\/td>\nMyBroadband and P3 Communications.<\/td>\nSAcsi<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
How the data is collected<\/strong><\/td>\nReal-world drive tests and crowdsourced network tests.<\/td>\nConsumer surveys.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
What the research establishes<\/strong><\/td>\nThe real-world network performance.<\/td>\nThe perception of consumers.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
What is meant by “Network”<\/strong><\/td>\nThe mobile network which users connect to.<\/td>\nA mobile operator (the company).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
What “Best Network” means<\/strong><\/td>\nThe fastest mobile network in SA.<\/td>\nThe best mobile operator in SA.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Now read: Vodacom must stop calling itself \u201cSA\u2019s Best Network\u201d \u2013 ASA<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vodacom has lost an ASA battle in which it called itself SA\u2019s Best Network.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":200194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[35,42,41],"class_list":["post-264067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-headline","tag-mtn","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264067"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264067"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":264077,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264067\/revisions\/264077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}