National Advertising Division Recommends Comcast Discontinue or Modify Comcast Business Internet’s “12x Faster” Claim

New York, NY – October 17, 2024 – In a challenge brought by AT&T Services, Inc., BBB National Programs’ National Advertising Division (NAD) recommended Comcast Cable Communications, LLC, in connection with Comcast Business Internet:

• Discontinue its claim that “Comcast Business Internet has speeds up to 12x faster than Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile” in markets where AT&T offers a wired fiber product with speeds faster than 100 Mbps to small business customers; or
• Modify the claim to limit the message to the specific products compared and otherwise avoid conveying the message that AT&T does not have a faster service with speeds more comparable to Comcast’s fastest product’s speeds.

AT&T and Comcast are competitors that offer internet service to small businesses nationwide. Comcast offers a wired internet product, while AT&T offers a wireless internet product and a wired “fiber” internet product in some markets.

The challenged claim, “Comcast Business Internet has speeds up to 12x faster than Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile,” appeared in television and radio advertisements and via direct mail.

NAD determined that Comcast’s advertisements did not clearly disclose the exact products being compared. As a result, NAD found that consumers could reasonably understand the challenged advertising as touting Comcast business internet as 12x faster than all AT&T internet services. In markets where AT&T offers both fiber and 5G internet service, such a message is not supported.  

NAD concluded that Comcast’s advertising should be limited to the specific services compared in markets where AT&T offers both 5G and fiber internet service and avoid conveying the misleading message that its service is 12x faster than AT&T’s internet service generally. 

For these reasons, NAD recommended that in markets where AT&T offers a wired fiber product with speeds faster than 100 Mbps to small business customers Comcast should discontinue its claim that “Comcast Business Internet has speeds up to 12x faster than Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile” or modify it to limit the message to the specific products compared and otherwise avoid conveying the message that AT&T does not have a faster service with speeds more comparable to Comcast’s fastest product’s speeds.

In its advertiser statement, Comcast stated that it agrees to comply with NAD’s recommendation, however it disagreed “that small business customers would expect the advertised speed comparison to relate to a fiber service rather than the 5G business internet offerings of the three wireless companies together.”

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