A Rogers Communications store in OttawaCHRIS WATTIE
The advertising war continues in Canadian telecommunications.
Bell Aliant has launched a legal action in a New Brunswick court on Monday that seeks to have Rogers Communications Inc. drop "false and misleading claims about its Internet service."
The suit follows a similar legal action in British Columbia, where Rogers took BCE Inc.'s Bell Mobility to court and got the company to drop its claim to having the "most reliable" network in December. A month earlier, Telus Corp. had won essentially the same injunction against Rogers.
In the claim filed on Monday, Bell Aliant said Rogers' advertising is "false and misleading with respect to their claims to having the 'fastest and most reliable' high speed Internet product."
Bell Aliant, in partnership with the provincial government of New Brunswick, said it will have 70,000 homes and business in Fredericton and Saint John hooked into a high speed Internet service using fibre optic cables by mid-2010.
Fibre-to-the-home technology, which is what the company is using, provides some of the fastest Internet speeds currently available. It is seen by many telecom providers as crucial for a future in which high-bandwidth using applications, such as HD or 3D TV, become more common. And after Bell Aliant's investment of $60-million in the project, the stakes are high.
The company, which launched the legal action at the Court of Queen's Bench in Fredericton, said in a release that its own network was "one of the most reliable networks in North America," avoiding absolutist claims to being the "best" or "most" reliable.
A Rogers spokesperson said no one at the company would be able to comment on the developments, given that it was Family Day in Ontario.