Broadband provider Optus was found guilty of violating the provisions of the country's Trade Practices Act as a Federal Court determined that the telco firm deceived and misled consumers during its campaign blitz that commenced April this year.

Aiming to chip away from the vaunted market of industry leader Telstra Corporation, Optus unleashed its Think Bigger and Supersonic advertising campaign that utilised the cross-media platforms of broadcast television, print and online media and even direct marketing.

In its decision, the Federal Court said that Optus' campaign initiatives were seriously misleading, with emphasis that the "contravention here is a serious one and the public should be protected from any further repetition of it."

Optus claimed on its aggressive campaign that subscribers availing of its regular monthly plan would entail a benefit of data allowance of broadband speed which would surge from midday to midnight but with an off-peak speed from midnight to midday.

In its ensuing inquiry and following complaints from affected broadband subscribers of the telecommunication firm, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) found that the Optus service would be downgraded to a backward speed of 64kbps once a given client has exceeded his/her allotted peak data.

The ACCC said that Optus either deliberately or was unable to disclose the true nature of its broadband offering, which is rendered useless even if the off-peak data allowance was still unused and left the hapless subscribers unable to use the broadband speed promised on the company's advertising campaign.

Broadband experts said that internet service providers (ISP) heralding speedy internet access but with an actual speed of only 64kbps would be a natural rip off for consumers as they argued that popular internet services such as Facebook and You Tube would be ineffective on such broadband speed.

The experts added that even if consumers would not utilise online multimedia-heavy services, performing simple tasks such as downloading and uploading of files and documents would prove to be a struggle too these days, considering the size of files in use by majority of web users.