Telstra pulls out of Federal Court appeal

Last September the ACCC took Telstra to court for misleading customers and deceptive marketing practices over an advertising campaign for their Next G service.

Last September the ACCC took Telstra to court for misleading customers and deceptive marketing practices over an advertising campaign run by the telco on the coverage of its Next G network. The watchdog cited Telstra’s campaign claims that Next G would deliver “coverage everywhere you need it” and that Next G customers would get the same or better coverage than on the now-defunct CDMA network as the backbone for the court case.

Today, Teltra pulled out of their appeal against the Federal court ruling

“Telstra’s decision to discontinue its appeal proceedings brings a welcome end to this matter, and vindicates the ACCC’s strong intervention to protect consumers from misleading marketing in the telecommunications industry,” ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said.

Telstra has been ordered to pay the ACCC’s court costs.

While Telstra still stands by its network position and the advertising campaign in question, Telstra spokesman Peter Taylor said in the interest of Telstra shareholders the appeal against the Federal Court ruling would be dropped.

“As the campaign in question has not run for over 10 months and is a distant memory, the CDMA network is now closed, and the Next G network is going from strength to strength, it is in the best interest of our shareholders and taxpayers to bring the episode to a close.”