The Commerce Commission has slapped TelstraClear for the way it represented its performance in the regulator's first quarterly report on broadband speeds and services to March 31.
The commission's latest report to June 30, released yesterday, found broadband speeds and performance were up an average 19-31 per cent
in Auckland Wellington and Christchurch.
The quarterly reports aim to provide a benchmark to assess broadband improvements. TelstraClear scored highest in the first report.
But the commission has found that the way TelstraClear marketed results of the first report might have confused consumers.
The commission confirmed yesterday it had issued TelstraClear with a compliance advice letter under the Fair Trading Act, ticking off the wholly owned division of the Australian telecommunications giant Telstra.
The earlier report failed to break down the areas where the fastest speeds were available, although TelstraClear's marketing claimed that it had the best broadband in the country.
Some of the highest speeds are through its cable service available in Wellington, Kapiti and Christchurch and elsewhere it was through a small area of the TelstraClear network on fixed line, a service that was available for business customers
The commission told TelstraClear that its approach could have confused consumers and changed the methodology of the report to reflect the different types of broadband services.
The compliance notice was issued on August 23 but TelstraClear spokesman Chris Mirams said marketing promoting the first broadband report had not been used for several months.
The second report to June 30 found there were 853,020 broadband connections with 763,000 on DSL services, 50,418 on cable and 39,601 on fixed wireless.
The majority of broadband connections were provided through Telecom's network of DSL connections, part of which were wholesaled to competitors.
Telecom reported that its broadband lines had increased by 43,000 lines - or 6.3 per cent - to March 2008.
Wholesale connections were up 20,000 or 8.6 per cent.
For Telecom, the biggest improvements in service had been in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
Vodafone had demonstrated gains with services improved by 35 per cent in Auckland, 24 per cent in Wellington and 25 per cent in Christchurch.
