BT Welcome Oftels Competition Ruling
Posted: 11th Jul, 2003 By: MarkJ
Unsurprisingly BT has responded positively to Oftels earlier ruling that the operator had not acted in an anti-competitive manor with its BT Broadband ADSL service:
BT WELCOMES OFTEL DECISION IN LATEST FREESERVE COMPLAINT
BT applauds today's decision from Oftel to throw out the latest complaint from Freeserve under the Competition Act 1998.
Freeserve had alleged that BT was abusing its dominance in voice telephony, by using its "blue bill" and "150" customer service channel to market the BT Broadband product and by billing both BT broadband and telephony on the same bill.
Oftel has today ruled that BT has not infringed the Competition Act and that none of the three practices has a material adverse impact on competition. It took the view joint billing could be replicated through other methods and that competitors could use other marketing channels at lower costs.
Pierre Danon, chief executive of BT Retail, said: "This is the latest in a long line of complaints against us from Freeserve and another that Oftel has dismissed. I think that if I was a Freeserve customer I'd be seriously concerned about the time and money being invested in complaining to Oftel about BT.
We will continue to present the best defence possible to these issues, trusting that the regulator will see them for what they are. In the meantime, we will continue to focus the bulk of our energies where they should be - on the customer. Our job is to make things simple and complete for our customers and that's exactly what we're doing. Had the judgement gone in Freeserve's favour, our ability to do that would have been severely compromised."
As well as being acceptable from a regulatory point of view, a single point of customer service and information on different BT services through one phone number makes sense for the customer. Customers want the simple convenience of having everything on the same bill and expect BT to provide information about its range of services in its customer literature.
Danon adds: "Oftel's decision is further confirmation that the way we do things is the right way."
No doubt we can expect a response from Freeserve.
BT WELCOMES OFTEL DECISION IN LATEST FREESERVE COMPLAINT
BT applauds today's decision from Oftel to throw out the latest complaint from Freeserve under the Competition Act 1998.
Freeserve had alleged that BT was abusing its dominance in voice telephony, by using its "blue bill" and "150" customer service channel to market the BT Broadband product and by billing both BT broadband and telephony on the same bill.
Oftel has today ruled that BT has not infringed the Competition Act and that none of the three practices has a material adverse impact on competition. It took the view joint billing could be replicated through other methods and that competitors could use other marketing channels at lower costs.
Pierre Danon, chief executive of BT Retail, said: "This is the latest in a long line of complaints against us from Freeserve and another that Oftel has dismissed. I think that if I was a Freeserve customer I'd be seriously concerned about the time and money being invested in complaining to Oftel about BT.
We will continue to present the best defence possible to these issues, trusting that the regulator will see them for what they are. In the meantime, we will continue to focus the bulk of our energies where they should be - on the customer. Our job is to make things simple and complete for our customers and that's exactly what we're doing. Had the judgement gone in Freeserve's favour, our ability to do that would have been severely compromised."
As well as being acceptable from a regulatory point of view, a single point of customer service and information on different BT services through one phone number makes sense for the customer. Customers want the simple convenience of having everything on the same bill and expect BT to provide information about its range of services in its customer literature.
Danon adds: "Oftel's decision is further confirmation that the way we do things is the right way."
No doubt we can expect a response from Freeserve.
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