Fiber-focused Frontier Communications and cable giant Charter Communications each took some hits and scored some points in a series of clashes over marketing claims related to their respective broadband products. Frontier scored a key win as the National Advertising Division (NAD) recommended Charter qualify some of its speed claims to note they’re not symmetrical, while Charter prevailed in challenges related to Frontier’s claims around availability and reliability.
The NAD is part of BBB National Programs, an organization which oversees self-regulation programs for the advertising industry. This week, it ruled on three separate disputes involving the aforementioned operators.
In a decision issued on Wednesday, the NAD mostly sided with Frontier in a challenge which took aim at claims Charter made around superiority, performance and consumer eligibility for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). The NAD upheld Charter’s claims related to the ACP, but recommended it modify or discontinue five comparative claims for which it found insufficient proof. These included statements like “Other internet providers just can’t compete with Spectrum” and “Spectrum internet is the top-performing Internet provider, delivering more speed, more consistently.”
In the same ruling, the NAD notably recommended Charter qualify speed claims to note whether it is referring to upload or download speeds. Explaining its reasoning for the decision, the NAD noted “the record demonstrates that upload speeds are important to consumers when choosing an ISP provider and that both download and upload speed are material considerations for consumers.”
Charter said it disagreed with the recommendation to change its speed claims and planned to appeal. Still, Frontier hailed the decision as a win, telling Fierce in a statement “With this ruling, the NAD is acknowledging that faster upload speeds are increasingly important for everyday activities like working from home and that they are far more important than generally understood. This ruling underscores what we have been saying – that fiber does what cable can’t.”
But it wasn’t all upside for Frontier.
The NAD noted on Tuesday the operator voluntarily discontinued its “Whole Home Wi-Fi Guarantee” claim following a challenge from Charter. Frontier made the move before the NAD could weigh the claim on its merits.
Charter also filed a separate challenge addressing Frontier’s fiber availability, “100% Fiber” and six-nines reliability claims. Citing a lack of evidence from Frontier, the NAD recommended the operator discontinue the latter claim and advised it to modify its availability and fiber claims to make clear its fiber service is not available across its entire network. In a statement included with the decision, Frontier said it did not agree with all of the NAD’s findings but would abide by its recommendations.
The challenges are the latest exchange between Charter and a fiber competitor. It spent a fair bit of 2022 going back and forth with AT&T, and even prevailed against Google Fiber in a dispute over speed claims.