The industry organisation representing FTTH operators and vendors has voiced its concern over “misleading fibre advertising”.
Background: Advertising of fibre broadband has sparked controversy in several EU countries recently. Regulators in Italy and France have passed rules requiring ISPs to differentiate FTTC from FTTB/H; in the UK, the FTTH wholesale-only provider CityFibre is seeking judicial review for the rules passed by the Advertising Standard Agency (ASA), which still allows ISPs to advertise FTTC connections as ‘fibre’.
What does the letter say? The FTTH council wrote to the telecoms ministers of EU member states ahead of the European Council meeting of 4 December 2018, which saw the final approval of the new European Electronic Communications Code. The letter links fibre advertising to the Code’s objectives, and points to ‘fake fibre’ advertising saying consumers will never switch to FTTH if they think they already have a fibre connection. The letter goes on to suggest this will affect uptake, and ultimately investment, in very high capacity networks.
Why does it matter? The new European Electronic Communications Code does not carry provisions on how to advertise fibre broadband, and it would have been too late to lobby the Council on this issue days before the last formal approval of the Code. But the letter signals this will be an open battleground for some time, with FTTH providers ready to push member states, national regulatory authorities and BEREC to regulate advertising of fibre broadband. Watch this space.
