Frontier's DSL speed advertisements under fire from NAD

Sean Buckley

Frontier Communications (Nasdaq: FTR) was asked by the National Advertising Division (NAD) on Monday to stop making specific claims in advertisements about the speeds of its DSL service.

What prompted the NAD to make this recommendation to the ILEC was a challenge made by one of its cable rivals, Cequel I Communications III, LLC, which does business as Suddenlink Communications.

Suddenlink said that Frontier's claims that the speeds of its DSL service were faster than Suddenlink's DOCSIS 3-based service were false.

One of the specific issues that Suddenlink cited about Frontier's service advertisements was that it offered a "dedicated" Internet line that "never lets you down," while the cable's customers could see slower speeds because they have to "share" a link with "the whole neighborhood."

In its advertiser's statement, Frontier has requested the National Advertising Review Board (NARB) review the NAD's recommendation that Frontier discontinue specific dedicated connection claims, cable service neighborhood sharing claims, and security and privacy claims.

Arguments between telcos and cable operator's broadband speeds have continued to emerge in recent years.

Besides the fight between Suddenlink and Frontier, Verizon faced a similar issue with Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) over claims that the cable operator's DOCSIS services were significantly slower than the telco's FTTH-based FiOS service.

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