BellSouth gets injunction blocking Joi Internet DSL claims

<p>A federal court has blocked an Atlanta company from using advertising claiming it offers Internet service at DSL speed, responding to a complaint by rival BellSouth Corp.</p><p>BellSouth said Wednesday its petition in U.S. District Court asking for an injunction against Joi Internet, which is a subsidiary of Hawk Communications, was granted Monday.</p><p>Atlanta-based BellSouth argued that the company has been using a deceptive advertising campaign for its Joi Express High Speed Internet service.</p><p>In a statement, BellSouth said the court found that Joi Internet's claims that its Joi Express High Speed Internet service offered "Dial-up at DSL speed" or "DSL speed" were false and misleading.</p><p>The court has prohibited Joi Internet from using that advertising slogan, meaning the company will have to remove billboards and stop running such ads, BellSouth spokesman Jeff Battcher said.</p><p>Joi Internet lawyer A. Todd Merolla said the company is considering whether to appeal the injunction order. He said the company expects to prevail when the case ultimately goes to trial. No trial date has been set.</p><p>"We believe that BellSouth has initiated this lawsuit simply to suppress competition," Merolla said.</p><p>Merolla said the company has submitted data to the court showing that its product had faster download times for several tested Web site pages than BellSouth's DSL product.</p><p>"We look forward to presenting that evidence to a jury and to the public," Merolla said.</p><p>He said Joi Internet has several hundred thousand customers in its Joi Express High Speed Internet service, though he declined to be more specific.</p><p>At issue in the dispute is share of the highly competitive DSL market.</p><p>BellSouth offers DSL service by itself for about $49.99 a month. According to its Web site, Joi Internet offers Joi Express High Speed Internet service for $9.95 a month.</p><p>According to BellSouth, the court determined that, unlike DSL, Joi Express dial-up does not increase the speed that data travels over the telephone line. When compared to BellSouth FastAccess DSL, Joi Express was found to be much slower at downloading web pages, BellSouth said.</p><p>Battcher said some of BellSouth's customers called saying they were confused or canceled their service because they heard they could get the same service much cheaper at Joi Internet.</p><p>"Deceptive advertising is good for no one," Battcher said. "We've got to make sure that we're protecting our consumers and that's what we felt this was about, and the marketplace."</p><p>___</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>HASH(0x2865674)</p><p>HASH(0x28656f8)</p>