3 and Orange the Latest to Brawl on Advertising Claims

A tumultuous atmosphere has been prevailing in the broadband sector of the United Kingdom recently, particularly owing to some noisy arguments between the UK broadband providers Sky, Virgin Media and BT, over advertising claims.

It is all the more interesting now that a couple of broadband providers – mobile broadband providers to be more precise – have decided to contribute to the already turbulent scenario, their part. The parties in the news are none other than leading mobile operators in the country, 3 UK and Orange.

The issue had begun after Orange had thrown an advertisement campaign flashing its claim that it owned the largest mobile broadband network in the United Kingdom. This has obviously irked 3, for it chose to file a complaint with the advertising regulator of the UK, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), over the suggestions made by Orange.

The Times has published the matter as 3 UK believing that it owned the biggest network, and stating that the claims put forward by Orange through its promotions could mislead its customers.

According to a spokesperson of 3, they were more than confident that they maintained the largest 3G mobile broadband network in the United Kingdom – both in terms of population and geographic coverage – set up on a network based on 9192 sites, which continues to grow by around one hundred fifty sites every week.

On the other hand, the rival ISP, Orange tried to refute the claims of 3 saying that its own estimates based on the figures flaunted by 3 had revealed that the latter's coverage was only about 91 per cent. According to the Orange source the number of masts erected did not matter, while all that mattered was the spots where those were being stuck.