At the behest of Verizon, the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus took issue with Time Warner Cable and Cox Communications characterizing their respective networks as advanced fiber-optic networks.
Yesterday, the NAD sided with Verizon by asking Time Warner Cable and Cox to stop describing their hybrid fiber/coax networks as advanced fiber-optic networks in their advertising campaigns.
Cox Communications agreed to refrain from using the term in its ads but issued the following statement: “Cox firmly believes that the record provides a reasonable basis for describing its network as an ‘advanced fiber-optic network.’ In the interest of supporting the self-regulatory process, Cox will take NAD’s recommendations into consideration in future advertising.”
Time Warner Cable said it would appeal NAD’s decision to the National Advertising Review Board (NARB). Time Warner Cable argued that its network is a fiber-optic network because more than 90 percent of the network consists of fiber-optic cables, but NAD responded by saying: “It may be misleading for an advertiser to describe its product/service by only calling out its predominant characteristic.”
In its statement, Time Warner Cable said, in part, that it “respectfully, but vehemently, disagrees with NAD’s decision and requests a referral to NARB to appeal.”
