Optus chief sorry for misleading broadband ads

Optus chief executive Paul O'Sullivan has apologised for an advertising campaign described as "tricky" by a Federal Court judge, but insisted the telco would continue to "push the boundaries" on marketing and take "aggressive action" to get back on track.

Last month Optus was found guilty of misleading and deceptive conduct in relation to advertising its "Think Bigger" and "Supersonic" internet plans in a Federal Court case initiated by the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission.

At a media briefing for the half-yearly results of Optus parent company Singtel, O'Sullivan apologised for the campaign and confirmed customers could change their plans free of charge.

"This was a plan that had the complexity of having an off-peak allowance as well as a peak allowance, and that's a difficult thing to communicate in an ad," O'Sullivan said.

"Clearly, we respect the courts and we obviously didn't get it right and we apologise for that... as it happens we'd actually corrected the advertising already before the court case took place."

However, he said that Optus would continue to try and "push the boundaries" in developing and marketing new products.

"We're keen to make sure that consumers see us as taking swift and aggressive action to get back on track.

"Over the last five ten years we've led the industry generally in creating new products and new types of products, this is one case where we got it wrong but there are many many cases we got it right," he said.