The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld complaints about a promotional message from UK virtual network Lycamobile.
A link on Lycamobile’s web site referred to “Unlimited Data, now with 4G”, while an advertisement on the site said “£15 per month ... unlimited data now with 4G”.
When the ASA contacted Lycamobile, the network admitted that it downgraded data speeds from 4G to 2G after ‘excessive use’, although it said very few customers would ever use that amount of data in a month.
In its response, the ASA noted that ‘unlimited’ was a strong claim and that consumers were likely to expect no more than moderate restrictions on this type of service. As customers could have their speeds significantly reduced by Lycamobile’s data management policy, it considered this restriction was not moderate and that the claim ‘unlimited data’ was misleading for the 4G service.
Lycamobile has now amended its website to show an offer of ‘4G data up to 5GB’.
[ASA adjudication]