TL;DR
- Comcast has agreed to drop the 10G branding of its fixed-line network following a ruling by the advertising standards organization.
- The watchdog found Comcast’s use of the term misleading, suggesting the company’s network was faster than 5G.
Telecommunications networks are used to misleading consumers with vague terminology. Now it has been revealed that Comcast has agreed to stop branding 10G after losing an appeal to the advertising watchdog.
The US National Advertising Department (NAD) found Comcast’s 10G branding for its Xfinity network to be misleading, but the US company appealed the ruling through the National Advertising Review Board (NARB). Now, NARB agrees (h/t: ars technica) The term 10G was certainly misleading.
“In agreement with NAD, the NARB Committee recognizes that Comcast, both when used in the name of the service itself (“Xfinity 10G Network”) and when used to describe the Xfinity Network, It was decided that the use of the term 10G should be discontinued. The Panel’s recommendations do not preclude the use of 10G in a manner that is not false or misleading and consistent with the Panel’s determinations. ”
Why was it so misleading? Let’s count the ways
Needless to say, Comcast wasn’t using 10G to refer to its 10th generation mobile wireless network. After all, 6G is still in its formative stages of development (not to mention 10G). The company instead used 10G to refer to the 10Gbps speeds possible on fixed-line networks.
NARB still found that the 10G branding implies that customers on Comcast’s Xfinity network will have much faster speeds than 5G.
This explicit claim is not supported because the record does not include data comparing the speeds experienced by Xfinity network users to the speeds experienced by 5G network subscribers.
What’s more, Comcast’s typical Internet plans don’t give you 10Gbps speeds in the first place, requiring the pricey Xfinity Gigabit Pro package instead. However, NARB added that there was no data showing how many users were utilizing these Gigabit Pro packages in the first place.
However, this is not the first time a US network has used misleading connection terminology. AT&T is notorious for using the “5G E” branding for its 4G network and even offering a “5G E” network icon on smartphones. Nevertheless, I’m glad the watchdog is calling out his Comcast for branding his 10G. However, it’s still possible that the company will use the term in some way. In fact, Comcast said in his statement to NARB that it reserves the right to use the term “in a manner that does not misrepresent the Xfinity network itself.”
