What does Virgin's Media's "Up-to" Speed Mean?

Back in October 2011, UK's BCAP (Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice) published a set of guidelines to "bring clarity to advertisers and consumers on the use of "unlimited" and "up to" speed claims in telecommunicatons and broadband ads" (here).

Apparently, when the term "up-to" is used in advertising,  it has double meaning ... as the next story shows.

Paul France (pictured) reports to cable.co.uk that "Virgin Media's traffic management policy has been given the all-clear by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) .. BT, Sky and a consumer challenged whether speed claims made by Virgin Media in two press ads and various pages on its website were misleading. The cable company used 'up to' figures to demonstrate the speed of its broadband service, but the complainants argued that these rates were inaccurate due to the advertiser's traffic management policy.

However, in its verdict, the ASA declared it was clear that the ads were referring to the maximum achievable speeds for each package. Ofcom reports and Virgin Media's own trials have proved that speeds of 30Mbps, 60Mbps and 100Mbps could be received on average by the "vast majority" of relevant customers". 

See "Virgin Media traffic management given all-clear by ASA" - here.