By Wailin Wong
| Sprint Nextel Corp. has lost its appeal to an advertising watchdog
because of its boast of being “America’s most dependable 3G network.”

The dispute stemmed from a claim against Sprint that rival Verizon
Wireless made in November to the National Advertising Division of the
Council of Better Business Bureaus. The NAD asked that Sprint
discontinue its claim, prompting the company to appeal the decision to
the National Advertising Review Board.

In a statement, Sprint said it disagrees with the NARB’s decision.

“Nevertheless, Sprint had stopped making its dependability claim before the NARB issued its decision,” the company said. “Instead, Sprint is…focusing its advertising on 4G products and services.”

Sprint’s “most dependable 3G network” claim was based on independent tests of its mobile network conducted by Nielsen Mobile. The NARB said Sprint used data that represented an average of two Nielsen tests to make its assertion. Verizon said it was top-ranked for certain criteria in the most recent Nielsen tests, and thus Sprint could not back up its claim of being the “most dependable.”

The NARB sided with Verizon. The watchdog also disagreed with Sprint’s position that a footnote in its advertising, explaining the time frame for the Nielsen tests, was sufficient.

“Consumers will reasonably interpret a ‘most dependable’ network claim as indicating the current status of the network, not its performance in tests that have been superseded by more recent tests,” the NARB said in its decision.