Key Points
- The National Advertising Division asked T-Mobile to modify ads suggesting Verizon customers could pay $147 per month for in-flight Wi-Fi.
- NAD said T-Mobile failed to show comparable evidence that Verizon subscribers incur the claimed costs and did not clearly explain airline limitations.
- T-Mobile said it will comply and noted it has already discontinued some of the challenged marketing claims.
The National Advertising Division (NAD) of the BBB National Programs has requested T-Mobile modify some of its marketing material related to its free in-flight Wi-Fi perks for some of its consumer wireless subscribers.
In an order released on Thursday, the NAD said certain T-Mobile promotions that touted its freebie of in-flight Wi-Fi wrongly implied that customers of competing wireless giant Verizon could incur costs of $147 per month based on their in-flight Wi-Fi use alone.
T-Mobile said the $147 figure was based on a calculation of a Verizon customer’s comparable Wi-Fi cost relative to the free perk that its subscribers receive. Most of T-Mobile’s post-paid consumer wireless plans include free access to GoGo in-flight Wi-Fi on flights within the United States.
NAD said T-Mobile submitted evidence that its customers make frequent use of the free Wi-Fi perk, but didn’t provide comparable evidence that Verizon customers incur the monthly costs alleged.
“NAD found that the challenged in-flight Wi-Fi advertising did not accurately communicate the benefit for T-Mobile customers or the cost Verizon customers would incur,” the organization wrote on Thursday. “The benefit for T-Mobile customers is that they have unlimited access to full-flight texting and free Wi-Fi on certain airlines through their T-Mobile plan. T-Mobile’s disclosures do not indicate which major airlines are covered by the benefit. Verizon customers do not receive such a benefit through their plan, although Verizon customers may have in-flight Wi-Fi from other sources.”
The NAD recommended T-Mobile “discontinue the challenged in-flight Wi-Fi claims or modify them to clearly and conspicuously disclose the nature of its in-flight Wi-Fi benefit by communicating that the fees that T-Mobile customers can potentially avoid with their plans are those charged by certain airlines and to avoid communicating that non-T-Mobile customers typically pay the monthly cost of in-flight Wi-Fi set forth by T-Mobile in its advertising.”
T-Mobile said it was happy to comply with the recommendation because it had already discontinued some of its marketing claims about its free Wi-Fi benefits compared to its rivals.
