NTL claimed that BSkyB claims were factually incorrect as Sky Digital did not have either Channel 4 or UTV.
Almost half of the 23 complaints on which the complaints committee of the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI) ruled in the two months to the end of August related to technology firms.
Advertisements for Eircom's high-speed internet product i-stream featured prominently, accounting for six of the cases. Complaints were also filed against computer firm Dell and BSkyB. Just one of the advertising complaints was not upheld, at least in part.
Among the complaints, Esat objected to Eircom's i-stream press and radio advertisement which used the words "you pay a fixed monthly fee for time online, putting you in control of costs".
Esat claimed the products were not unlimited services. Users are limited in the amount they can download.
The ASAI upheld the complaint in part ruling that, while business users would not be misled by the advertising, consumers may be. Eircom should have qualified the advert, it said.
A similar intra-industry complaint was lodged by NTL against a newspaper advertisement from BSkyB. NTL challenged the use of the headline "Fact: Sky digital has the best choice in digital TV".
The ASAI did not uphold the complaint saying the headline was an expression of opinion. However, it was concerned at the use of the word "fact", which Sky has undertaken not to use again.
Computer giant Dell agreed to withdraw a television advertisement which depicted a man in a hallway listening to a woman in the living room on the phone. When she hangs up, he enters the room and asks to whom she was speaking. She tells him she was on to Dell ordering her new computer. When she leaves the room, he picks up the phone and, using the redial function, checks who she phoned.
Womens Aid said the commercial depicted a pattern of behaviour that is part of a control pattern often used by abusive men to keep their partners "in line". Dell agreed to withdraw the advert.
The bulletin noted that excessive delays in response were experienced in complaints addressed to both Eircom and Dell.
