The 3 network have submitted a complaint to the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) over T-Mobile’s recent promotion to guarantee more minutes for £30 per month than any of its competitors. This is not the first time that the 3 network has made a complaint against one of its competitors.

T-Mobile’s latest advertising campaign claims “You won’t find more minutes for £30” and “We’ve already searched the other four networks”. For £30 per month T-Mobile offers 700 minutes and unlimited texts on their Combi 30 talk plan.

3’ complaint is based around the fact that they don’t do a £30 talk plan and that T-Mobile are misleading consumers in comparison ads that 3 can’t possibly feature in.
3 claim they don’t need to offer a £30 talk plan as it currently offers more minutes that the other networks for £27 per month. Having looked at the 3 tariff in question I have noticed that the Mix & Match 1100 talk plan is actually a plan where you can use up to 1100 minutes or 1100 texts or a mixture of both. Therefore, you could have 1100 minutes per month for £27 but you would not have any texts left.

3 believe that they should be excluded from the T-Mobile comparison advert and made this know in their letter of complaint to the ASA last week.
The letter from 3 said: The campaign is misleading as it is attracting customers spending circa £30 a month with a claim that T-Mobile will always give more minutes.
‘The truth of the matter is that 3 customers can get more minutes for £3 less than the tariff cost of the price plan T-Mobile is using as a basis of its comparison.’
The letter of complaint added: ‘As we know the mobile industry is very competitive and it is absolutely necessary that consumers are fully informed what the different competitors can offer so that they can make an informed decision of what service to go with.’
T-Mobile had yet to hear from the ASA but a spokesman said: ‘As far as I am aware we have not yet received any formal correspondence from the Advertising Standards Authority regarding our price guarantee offer.
‘Until such time as we do hear anything, it would not be appropriate for us to comment.’
ND Mobiles allows you to compare mobile phones and the deals on offer across all five networks.