This week sees the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) go a bit soft on cable broadband provider Telewest. Telewest, now on their 4th investigation in 12 months, found themselves under scrutiny after both the public and broadband rival BT complained about an advertisement appearing in a regional rag.

The first bizarre motion by the ASA was to find that Telewest has not broken advertisement rules and regs by cost comparing their 256Kbps service to that of BT Broadband's 512Kbps service. Arguing that speed alone is only one aspect of choosing a broadband provider (and technically Telewest are correct), the ISPs lower speed service can be compared to higher as the products "met the same needs or were intended for the same purpose". The ASA it seems, were powerless to find otherwise, due to complying with existing advertising Code of Conduct. Sneaky.

What Telewest did get slapped over though was for failing to give enough "prominence" to the comparison, as this was later on in the 4 page advert. A cynical person might read that the ASA were slightly miffed over Telewests clever tactics over the first complaint.

The remaining complaints against the ISP complained about ownership of a "free modem", which remains the property of Telewest (not upheld), and the ISPs use of "Faster Broadband" (which was upheld).

Interestingly, the Adjudication, prints that the Telewest advertisement cited ...

Telewest's 256Kbps service costs £17.99 per month, and is an interesting claim given that cable 'rival' NTL, offer a (albeit, slightly) faster (300Kbps) service for the exact same money. Obviously the eagle eyes at ASA & NTL did not spot that one. Then again maybe thats due for publication next time.