Internet service providers were today warned they should not advertise services as "free" if they charge for any part of their online package.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) took action after upholding a complaint from 167 consumers about ntl's failure to provide the free internet access promised in its advertising.

An ASA spokesman said: "The advertisers said they experienced such a significant demand for the service that it resulted in an overload of their capacity to provide telephone and internet services.

"They explained that improvements to their service capacity were made immediately, but to maintain services at optimal quality levels they had opted to phase the distribution of the CD-rom that was required to access the free internet service."

But the ASA said it was concerned that ntl had continued to advertise the free service, knowing it could not satisfy demands.

The spokesman added: "We have asked the advertisers not to advertise free internet access through ntlworld until they could supply the service to all applicants within a reasonable time."

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Advertising Standards Authority