National Advertising Division Recommends T-Mobile be Banned from Calling Itself 'Most Reliable 5G Network'

Urian B., Tech Times 25 November 2021, 06:11 pm

The National Advertising Division or NAD is recommending that T-Mobile be banned from crowning itself in its advertisements the "most reliable 5G network." This claim was based on third-party firm tests that benchmark mobile services of different wireless providers.

T-Mobile Calls Itself the 'Most Reliable 5G Network'

According to the article by Fierce Wireless, from April 12 to September 26 this year, the company got over a billion samples from 200,000 5G users with data saying that with the data, saying that "T-Mobile has the most reliable network."

The NAD is a part of BBB or Better Business Bureau National Programs and is the advertising industry's self-regulatory organization. With that, it was AT&T that brought the matter to NAD's attention after T-Mobile aired two TV commercials and its internet advertising both claim that they are the "most reliable 5G network."

NAD Can Only Provide Recommendations

The NAD issues recommendations that aren't actually carrying the force of law. On that note, T-Mobile said that the company will appeal the ruling, which they are still legally allowed to do.

The data uses claims taken from handsets that use software seen in apps from Google Play Store to back its claims. The testing was broken down into two metrics, namely coverage and speed.

Mismatch of Testing Results and Claims

The NAD said they agreed that speed and coverage were important to consider, but it cannot support a reliability claim when it comes to 5G network reliability. To this, T-mobile replied, saying the NAD allows companies to use third-party "accolades" if it is based on legitimate testing and the companies ad does include basis and findings.

The NAD says that besides being the case, T-Mobile still has to make an inquiry. With that, the actual statement was that although the NAD permitted wireless providers to advertise their third-party network performance awards as long as they are qualified to do so, this doesn't mean they can do so "without further inquiry."

Data was Not a 'Good Fit' to Claim 'Most Reliable 5G Network'

According to the story by PhoneArena, the NAD says that they carefully review methodology for third-party awards to make sure the underlying claim has a reasonable basis.

AT&T argued that the metrics used to measure the results were not "appropriate" for assessing 5G network reliability. The carrier also said that RootMetrics provides "true reliable" metrics to measure reliability due to its better systems.

The NAD said that through T-Mobile calling itself the most reliable 5G network, the company is saying that subscribers are capable of accessing its 5G network and stay connected for whatever intended purpose they might have or to complete a task. The data, however, was not a "good fit" to help support the claims made by T-Mobile of it being the most reliable since the findings were from 5G and non-5G networks.

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Written by Urian B.