ACCC tells Telstra to change ads that no longer exist

Watchdog issues recommendation for Telstra to amend NextG advertisements that the telco said are already changed.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has deemed Telstra’s advertisements for its NextG mobile phone network as misleading, recommending the telco to withdraw and amend them immediately.

But Telstra has hit back, saying the changes were made well before the telco was even approached by the consumer watchdog.

"The ACCC had particular concerns about Telstra's unqualified use of the taglines ‘Everywhere you need it’ and ‘Get the coverage you need with Telstra's Next G network’, when the whole of Australia is not covered and coverage is not always available where consumers need it," said ACCC Chairman, Graeme Samuel in a media statement.

According to the ACCC, Telstra (which has been promoting the Next G network since its launch in October 2006), responded “promptly" and has removed the taglines “Everywhere you need it” and “Get the coverage you need with Telstra's Next G network”.

However, Telstra spokesperson, Peter Taylor, was perplexed by the ACCC’s claims, particularly with the “promptness” of the telco amending the offending advertisements.

"Today’s announcement by the ACCC has left us scratching our heads when we launched a new Next G campaign with a different tagline at the start of July - weeks before the ACCC even contacted us," Taylor said.

“We question their motives about putting out an announcement about something that has already happened and happened a while ago.”

The ACCC was also concerned that Telstra's television advertisements conveyed the impression that service quality issues such as call interference and call drop-outs would not happen on the Next G network, another issue that Taylor disputes.

"The fact remains that Next G covers more of Australia than any other network –25 percent more than the old CDMA network that Next G replaces, and 100 times more ground than our any of our competitors' 3G networks," he said.

"We trust the ACCC will now investigate the ads our competitor runs suggesting that tigers can read stock tips and baboons use phones," he said.