New Zealand’s Spark warned off marketing Gigabit plans

New Zealand operator Spark has been cautioned against advertising its high-speed fiber services as “gigabit” plans by competition regulator the Commerce Commission.

The ISP launched its fastest fiber service yesterday, labeling it “Ultra Fast Fibre MAX” instead of the planned Gigabit name.

The Commerce Commission held that advertising the service as a Gigabit speed would mislead consumers into expecting speeds of 1,000Mbps, whereas the Spark service will deliver speeds of between 700Mbps and 900Mbps.

As well as Spark, the Commission also plans to get into contact with other ISPs making similar claims, noting that it has received enough consumer complaints to deem the action necessary.

The Commission hasn’t made a formal ruling, but said Spark had recognized the concerns the regulator had raised and decided to take action accordingly.

But the Telecommunications Users Association has criticized the decision as being “pedantic”, noting that other markets advertise similar-speed plans as Gigabit services, and that technical constraints will mean services always fall below their full potential speeds.