BT Ad Blaming WiFi Issues On Phones Gets Banned
British Telecom has been told it can no longer air the commercial that claimed devices like phones and radios could impact WiFi signal.
Britain's advertising authority has banned an TV advertisement from British Telecom following three separate complaints about the commercial. The ad, which was for BT's Home Hub wireless router, showed images of mobile phones, radios, and other household devices coupled with a voice-over that stated, "There's no end of things around the home that disrupt your wireless internet." The ad went on to say that the new BT Home Hub helped to avoid interference from non-WiFi devices.
The ASA received complaints that the ad was misleading because it implied that the devices shown significantly interfere with WiFi signal. The Advertising Standards Authority contacted BT as well as telecoms watchdog Ofcom for clarification on the issue. Though BT maintained that the 2.4 GHz spectrum was heavily congested and susceptible to interference, Ofcom said that radios and phones would not cause the kind of interference described in the ad.
"We were concerned that the ad prominently featured a ringing mobile phone, when using such a device for telephone calls would not cause interference of the kind described," the ASA said in its judgement. "We further noted that the ad also featured images of radios, which Ofcom had also advised did not pose a particular problem in terms of interference."
The ASA goes on to that while BT is right in suggesting some non-WiFi devices could affect performance of WiFi devices, the images shown in the ad were misleading. As such, the advertisement cannot be broadcast again in its current form.
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But phones and radios are not amongst them.
I do however have no idea how a radio could interfere
If a radio was using the 2.4ghz or 5ghz bands, you wouldn't get any radio stations. Also, a radio doesn't send out signals, it receives them. Radios operate on Hz and KHz bands....so, it's impossible for a radio to interfere with WiFi.
Someone should make a TV show depicting marketing people vs. R&D. Put them on a deserted island and see which team does better. The winners get to choose between the latest iphone and a plane ticket home, and the losers get whatever's left. I would watch that.
When I used Wi-Spy in my apartment:
#1: Microwave was by far the worst for interference (when running it of course). It basically blanketed the entire spectrum with noise that halted any Wi-Fi or Bluetooth traffic near it.
#2: Other competing Wi-Fi access points were the 2nd worst source of interference. Easily fixed by changing my router's channel number.
#3: Cordless phone was a distant 3rd, when it was in use. Note: there are multiple 2.4GHz cordless phone technologies out there.
#4: Bluetooth was an extremely distant 4th. It showed up as micro-blips across the spectrum.