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iBurst and Telkom in hot soup
ADSL South Africa (Broadband South Africa), 27 July
2007
iBurst and Telkom have landed in hot soup over dubious speed claims. The Advertising Standards Authority
(ASA) has instructed them to withdraw the relevant claims with immediate effect.
iBurst
The claim that landed iBurst in trouble:
“Replace your dial-up [with]… iBurst up to 17x faster!” (As per iBurst’s website).
‘In an Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA) complaint Mr Michael van
Dijk submitted that although he resides in close proximity to an iBurst tower and has excellent signal strength,
his access speeds do not exceed 250 Kbps and is nowhere near the claimed ‘17X faster than dial-up’’ (iBurst speed
claims not allowed, MyBroadband, 20 July 2007).
In other words, Van Dijk is not happy about the huge difference between the realised
and promised speeds.
Did iBurst provide proof to back their claim?
Yes (although they were not successful).
‘iBurst submitted documentary evidence from Mr Peter Chitamu (Pr.Eng.,Ph.D) and Mr
David Vannucci (MSc.) of Dovetel Consulting Engineering CC in support of the claim’ (iBurst speed claims not
allowed, MyBroadband, 20 July 2007). ‘According to the ASA website Dr Chitamu and Mr Vannucci conclude that, “… it
is correct to say that the iBurst network can achieve a peak data rate of 1,061 kbps which is just over 18.9 times
the dial up peak rate of 56 kbps. This speed is however achievable under ideal channel conditions only on the down
link” (iBurst speed claims not allowed, MyBroadband, 20 July 2007). They
added: “…the actual user experience
can be much less than the peak data rate indicated” (iBurst speed claims not allowed, MyBroadband, 20 July
2007).
The ASA said:
“The documentation submitted by Dovetell therefore confirms that the claimed speed is achievable but under ideal
conditions and only on the ‘downlink’ (transmissions from Base Station to User Terminal). While the experts
therefore submitted that this speed is achievable, it appears that it is very conditional” (iBurst speed claims not
allowed, MyBroadband, 20 July 2007). Also, “There is nothing before the Directorate to confirm that a significant
number of people can achieve this speed under reasonable circumstances” (iBurst speed claims not allowed,
MyBroadband, 20 July 2007).
In other words, iBurst took a fat chance and tried to deceive
us.
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