The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has asked Bharti Airtel to withdraw or modify its advertisement that claims the operator’s networks are the fastest in the country.

The move came after rival Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio) filed a complaint with the advertising industry watchdog stating Airtel’s claims were false, misleading and incorrect.

ASCI’s Fast Track Complaints Committee (FTCC), which met on Thursday, upheld RJio’s complaint and ruled that TV commercial was “misleading by ambiguity and implication”.

“While the advertiser submitted an Ookla certificate, they did not provide an explicit test methodology to substantiate that the method is robust to capture that the sample; and is representative and comparable across operators, geographies and consumers,” the committee said.

Airtel has claimed to be the fastest network based on a report by Seattle-based broadband testing firm Ookla. RJio has sent a legal notice to Ookla too.

While Airtel will contest the decision, Ookla said it fully stands behind Bharti Airtel being named ‘India’s Fastest Mobile Network’.

The committee also stated that the claim was not “adequately substantiated and the basis of comparison has been so chosen as to bestow artificial advantage to the advertiser”.

“We have advised the advertiser to modify appropriately or to withdraw the said TVC and the website advertisement by April 11,” it added.

Airtel, which did not agree with ASCI’s decision, said it intends to contest the decision.

“We do not agree with ASCI’s decision and will file an appeal as per guidelines. Our campaign is based on findings by Ookla, a globally recognised leader in mobile speed tests and a benchmark for reputed global operators.

“We have shared all supporting facts with ASCI and strongly believe that our campaign is compliant with all guidelines. We will be happy to provide more details, if required, and hope ASCI will reconsider its decision,” Airtel said in a statement.

Ookla stated it fully stands behind the “accuracy and reliability of the methodology” used to designate Airtel as ‘India’s Fastest Mobile Network’.

The award designation was validated using the IP methodology described above for all speedtest results during the last six months of 2016 (Q3 and Q4). When analysing the data for 2016, Airtel was still the clear leader, it added.

“When analysing data for 2017 to date, Airtel is still the clear leader. It is worth noting that after correcting for the Android limitation, Airtel’s lead over Jio increases for all aforementioned date ranges,” it added.