Telkom's advertising of a "completely unlimited" cellphone contract is misleading, according to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
The ASA received a complaint from consumer, Clayton Faulkner, against advertising on the Telkom Web site that offers "SA's best cellphone contract". The offer is for unlimited data, unlimited SMSes on all national networks, unlimited voice calls to South African cellular and landline networks, and free WiFi in over 6 000 Telkom WiFi hotspots around the country.
However, Faulkner complained the data offer is not really unlimited.
"The complainant submitted that the advertising was misleading as a subscriber only receives 15GB of data per month before being throttled to an unusable speed of 128kbps. This negates the word 'unlimited' used in the advertising," according to the ASA ruling.
Telkom's response was that its fair usage policies make it clear that "the completely unlimited data benefit is governed by an acceptable usage threshold of 15GB per month. The speed will be throttled to 128kbps if the customer reaches this soft usage cap of 15GB before the end of the month."
However, after review, the ASA says it found the advertising makes no mention of line speed, "meaning that the usability (or lack thereof) of the reduced speed of 128kbps does not factor into the consideration at this time".
The ASA found the advertising conveys the apparent lack of any limitations more than once, and "there can be no dispute that this communicates to the hypothetical reasonable person that there are no limitations to this offering".
The ASA, therefore, ruled the advertising for the "completely unlimited" deal is communicated in a misleading manner, and in contravention of clause 4.2.1 of Section II of the Code of Advertising Practice.
"The offering is not an exclusively data offering, but a combination of voice and data, with the target market being smartphone users. The complainant should have opted for an uncapped DSL data offer, if he wanted to receive unlimited data," according to Telkom.
The telco added that mobile users who consume 15GB or more on their phones are clearly heavy users and need to opt for other products to suit their needs.
"The Directorate accepts that the amount of 15GB could perhaps be perceived as heavy use on a mobile phone. However, it cannot ignore the fact that the respondent communicates this offer as comprising 'unlimited' data, when this is clearly not the case."
The ASA says the fact that the offer is effectively limited to 15GB is a material condition, especially given this limitation contradicts the prominent message of "unlimited" data.
"The respondent therefore carries a responsibility to communicate this limitation upfront, rather than hiding it in its policies and fine print."
The ASA, therefore, has upheld Faulkner's complaint and told Telkom the advertising has to be withdrawn with immediate effect; it cannot be used again in its current format.
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