AT&T told to stop boasting about how ‘fast’ its 3Mbps service is

We really do have to give AT&T’s marketing team credit for this one. When they had to come up with a clever way to pitch their company’s less-than-blazing 3Mbps U-Verseservice to consumers, they put an absolutely brilliant spin on it and dubbed it “the fastest Internet for the price.” In other words, while the service itself wasn’t at all fast, it might be sort-of fast relatively speaking because you’re just paying $30 a month for it.

Unfortunately for AT&T, the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus also thinks that this claims is rather misleading. As Ars Technica reports, Comcast actually ratted AT&T out to the NAD for allegedly engaging in misleading advertising and it seems the division thought Comcast’s complaint had merit.

“NAD recommended that AT&T either discontinue its ‘Fastest Internet for the price’ claim or modify the claim by ensuring that consumers understand that the claim is based on a comparison of pricing for 3.0 Mbps service,” the group said in an official statement.

As Ars points out, 3Mbps doesn’t even meet the Federal Communications Commission’s definition of broadband, which is currently set at 4Mbps or greater.