Vodafone’s high-speed broadband claims have come under the scanner after rival broadband network, 3, filed an official complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority stating the claims are misleading and practically impossible.

Vodafone, which claims to provide top speeds of 7.2MB in its advertisements, is considered as the fastest UK mobile broadband network. 3 has lambasted this claim as deceptive and confusing. The complaint states that Vodafone’s high-speed broadband claims can be realised only in few parts of the country and are not true elsewhere.

According to a spokesman from 3, such speeds were unlikely to be experienced by the customer, even with the cutting edge 3.6Mbps technology, due to the intricacies involved in mobile broadband. However, Vodafone maintains that such speeds can be achieved in London and in airports.

Vodafone says that it provides speeds of 1.8Mb to nearly 80% of the population. The company is seeking to cover 50 % of the population at the speed of 3.6Mb by the end of this summer. Both these speeds are considerably less than the ones claimed in advertisements - click here for a mobile broadband speed check.

Even in the best of times, leave alone times such as these, a company would never want to lose its customers to its rival over ‘misleading