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Thursday, July 10, 2014

ASA says Three UK 'free 0800 calls' advertising wasn't clear enough

The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that a TV advertisement for Three didn’t explain the network’s free calls policy clearly enough.

A voice on the TV ad said “At Three, we’ve made 0800 numbers free” and “All 0800 numbers are free on our 24 month plans”. However, an on-screen message added “All 0800 calls free on new Three plans.”

A total of eleven people challenged the claim “we’ve made 0800 numbers free” because this only applied to new customers or new 24-month contracts.

Hutchison 3G UK, which runs the Three network, said the text was displayed in a large font as the first on-screen message, making it unambiguous.

The ASA disagreed, describing the ad’s contents as “three differing messages”. It described the ad as containing “ambiguous and contradictory messages which did not make clear the extent of the commitment consumers must make”.

As a result, it ruled that the ad breached rules on misleading advertising, qualification and ‘free’ claims.

From the end of June next year, all UK mobile phone networks will be required to provide free calls to numbers beginning 080.

[ASA adjudication]

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Opinion Articles

Is Android losing its impact for Google?

Mark Bridge writes:

Recent figures released by ABI Research have prompted the market intelligence company to ask whether Google is losing control of the Android ecosystem.

At first glance, Android dominated smartphone shipments for the final quarter of 2013. ABI Research says 77% of the 287 million smartphones shipped in Q4 2013 were running Android.

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It’s time to prepare for the upcoming surge in signaling traffic

Robin Kent writes:

After initially suffering from slow pick up by consumers, 4G has begun to accelerate, and is now well on the way to the forecasted one billion subscribers by 2017. In fact EE, owner of T-Mobile and Orange, recently announced the addition of 493,000 new 4G customers to its existing base of 1.2 million.

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Mobile phone coverage: is this as good as it gets?

Mark Bridge writes:

A new report has highlighted the issue of poor mobile phone coverage in rural Sussex villages. BBC Sussex invited me onto their ‘Sussex Breakfast’ radio show to explain what could be done - and, as usual, I made enough notes for a lecture rather than a three-minute interview.

Here’s what I would have liked to have said if I’d been given a disproportionate amount of time to talk.

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Last week at The Fonecast: 27th January 2014

Expecting the unexpected

Mark Bridge writes:

Great news for mobile phone users. Ofcom’s new rules preventing unexpected mid-contract price rises came into force last week, which means UK consumers can no longer be surprised by their subscription charge increasing while they’re still locked into a minimum-term deal.

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Ofcom changes the rules for mobile phone contracts... and so does O2

Mark Bridge writes:

This week, new Ofcom rules came into force. They’re designed to avoid unexpected price rises during the minimum term of a mobile phone contract. Yes, just because you signed a fixed-term contract doesn’t mean the charges can’t increase. Networks said they needed this option in case of inflation or regulatory changes. Customers felt trapped.

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A month of mobile: O2 counts on 3, Microsoft counts to 10 and Apple counts its profits

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