BBB's National Ad Division Rules Against Comcast Ads After AT&T Challenge

The Better Business Bureaus' National Advertising Division decided Comcast should discontinue advertising claims the company has the most reliable network and that AT&T deceives customers about network speed and reliability, said the Advertising Self-Regulatory Council Tuesday. AT&T challenged Comcast radio and TV spots. Comcast said it will appeal to the National Advertising Review Board, the release said. NAD “has long recognized an advertiser’s right to make literally truthful and accurate advertising claims -- sometimes at the expense of its competitors. Denigrating claims, however, must be truthful, accurate and narrowly drawn,” it said. Though some of Comcast’s claims about the availability of AT&T’s faster service speeds could be substantiated, Comcast “could not support the claim that AT&T ‘was telling people everywhere that they could get AT&T Fiber when it’s really only available to, like, 10 percent of their customers,’” it said. NAD decided information from the FCC 2016 measuring broadband America fixed broadband report Comcast cited is dated.