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.</p><p>Atlanta-based BellSouth argued that the company has been using a deceptive advertising campaign for its Joi Express Internet service.</p><p>In a statement, BellSouth said the court found that Joi Internet's claims that its Joi Express 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>Calls to Joi Internet's offices were routed to a sales associate, who took a message. There was no immediate response from anyone at the company.</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 Internet service for as low as $6.95 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(0x2857910)</p><p>HASH(0x2857994)</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2004/4/171265