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Ofcom Provisionally Finds BT Overcharged Sky for Engineer Fault Finding

Monday, Sep 26th, 2016 (11:52 am) - Score 1,150

The UK telecoms regulator has today echoed last month’s TalkTalk linked investigation (here) by provisionally concluding that BTovercharged” Sky (Sky Broadband) for their Special Fault Investigation (SFI) engineer service and Time Related Charges (TRC).

SFIs and TRCs are often used to help find and resolve customer phone and broadband faults (usually following an ISP’s request). Over the years’ plenty of providers have moaned about the cost and efficiency of these services, thus it’s perhaps no surprise that such a case has been raised.

Last month Ofcom provisionally ruled on a very similar case between TalkTalk and BT, which also found that BT had overcharged for SFI + TRCs between 1st April 2011 to 30th June 2014. Today the regulator has reached a virtually identical conclusion in a dispute between Sky and BT, albeit for the period between 1st January 2009 and 30th June 2014.

Ofcom Statement

For the reasons set out above, we provisionally conclude that BT has overcharged Sky for TRCs and SFIs during the Relevant Period and that it would be appropriate in this case to order BT to repay the overcharge to Sky, with interest. We consider an appropriate repayment level to be the difference between the level of the charge and DSAC [Distributed Stand Alone Cost].

We have identified the amount by which BT has overcharged for each service in each year. We do not have accurate information as to the volumes of each service purchased by Sky and therefore propose to leave it to the Parties to agree the exact levels of repayment that are due, based on our calculated unit charges. We note repayment is dependent on the outcome of the Ethernet appeals.

In line with our Dispute Resolution Guidelines, we are allowing two weeks for the Parties and other interested parties to provide any comments on our Provisional Conclusions. The deadline for comments is 5pm on 10 October 2016.

Sky is now seeking a repayment and, just like the TalkTalk case, BT has argued that Ofcomdoes not have … the power to order retroactive payments in dispute resolution proceedings. This is because the CRF does not permit the NRAs to order administrative payments as a remedy for past breaches.”

Once again BT referred to the pending Ethernet appeals before the Court of Appeal, which has been going on for years since a 2009 decision in which Ofcom ruled against BT over the pricing of Partial Private Circuits (PPCs). The case covers some of the same conflicts over repayment and BT still has an active appeal, which isn’t scheduled to be heard until March 2017.

Meanwhile Ofcom has recognised that both Sky and TalkTalk’s disputes with BT are very.. very similar. As a result the regulator has decided to link the two cases and will not announce a final determination for either until both have been completed.

Sadly it’s not possible to calculate how much this might cost BT because the relevant data has been redacted from Ofcom’s report. BT are understood to be “disappointed” by the news and claim that the way in which Ofcom has assessed this case differs from their understanding of the guidance.

Mark-Jackson
By Mark Jackson
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and .
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