Mobile phone provider Vodafone has been criticised by the Advertising Standards Authority for flogging its mobile internet package as an unlimited one in an advert that claimed that the service offered ‘Any website, any time. £7.50 a month'.
A member of the public came forward to report what appeared to be an unfair representation of services offered and argued that this could mean unlimited usage fo £7.50 per month when in fact, Vodafone had very stringent data limits - only 120MB per month.
The ASA backed the complainant saying that the small print conflicted with the overall message of the advertising and should therefore be modified or risk a fine should the advert be replayed again.
Vodafone counterargument was that the word "any" meant "some or even the smallest amount of", a definition that PCPro says was lifted straight from the Collins dictionary but presented out of context.
The decision by the organisation touches upon one of the main issues that customers will be facing as mobile broadband becomes more popular.
T-Mobile Web-n-Walk offers is not dissimilar to Vodafone's claims although, rather than giving a ridicule 4MB allowance per day, T-Mobile gives you 32MB to play with.
Like Vodafone, Web-n-Walk is marketed as an "Unlimited Internet Access" service which comes with a strict data allowance.
So will T-Mobile be spared while Vodafone gets the spanking?
A member of the public came forward to report what appeared to be an unfair representation of services offered and argued that this could mean unlimited usage fo £7.50 per month when in fact, Vodafone had very stringent data limits - only 120MB per month.
The ASA backed the complainant saying that the small print conflicted with the overall message of the advertising and should therefore be modified or risk a fine should the advert be replayed again.
Vodafone counterargument was that the word "any" meant "some or even the smallest amount of", a definition that PCPro says was lifted straight from the Collins dictionary but presented out of context.
T-Mobile Web-n-Walk offers is not dissimilar to Vodafone's claims although, rather than giving a ridicule 4MB allowance per day, T-Mobile gives you 32MB to play with.
Like Vodafone, Web-n-Walk is marketed as an "Unlimited Internet Access" service which comes with a strict data allowance.
So will T-Mobile be spared while Vodafone gets the spanking?
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