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UPDATE3 UK ISP AAISP Accuses O2 of Trying to Poach their Broadband Customers

Posted: 21st Feb, 2011 By: MarkJ

Broadband ISP Andrews & Arnold ( AAISP ) has suspended new orders for BE Wholesale ( Be Broadband ) based lines after new customers reported that their details had been passed on to a marketing company, which promptly began cold calling their numbers in an effort to try and sell O2 UK services.

O2 is the parent company for BE and also uses the same network, although passing on details gained from a third party ISP for marketing purposes is potentially breaking the law. At the very least it is a serious breach of privacy and shows the recently launched BE Wholesale up in a very bad light. ISPs certainly won't be keen to use a supplier that passes their details onto a rival.

AAISP Statement

We have stopped the BE line checker, and hence any new orders for BE lines for the time being following reports that O2 have passed the numbers checked to a marketing company that have been cold calling the numbers trying to sell O2 services.

We have taken these reports very serious and had been advised by O2 on Monday that they were stopping this.

Obviously anyone making unsolicited marketing calls to someone listed in the TPS is committing an offence under the The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003. Anyone passing phone numbers given to check availability on to a marketing company without consent is in breach of the Data Protection Act 1998.

Being an oversight or not intentional can in some cases be a defence. We advised BE/O2 of this on Monday when we got the first report and as such they are now fully aware of it. If indeed they are still passing numbers to a marketing company they would be deliberately and knowingly breaking the law, we believe.

We were therefor surprised to get a report of this apparently happening following a check made on Thursday, 4 days after it was reported. Obviously AAISP cannot be a party to criminal activity, so we have had to shut down the checker.

Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

AAISP has been quick to clarify that they are not accusing O2 of criminal activity and merely raising the possibility of a series problem, which could indeed be an offence. The community focused Be Usergroup website notes that customers who put their details into the Be Broadband website checker have also been receiving similarly unsolicited calls.

One such individual said, "Put my number in Be website to check something. Now being plagued by marketing calls from BT and O2", while a second person added, "This happened when I checked on bethere.com. The o2 rep wasn't sure why he had my number, he mentioned a few ISPs including BE". Admittedly BE and O2 are one and the same, although those using the checker should be clearly informed about the potential for marketing calls.

Felix Geyr, Managing Director O2 Home and Broadband, told ISPreview.co.uk:

"We are aware of an issue where prospective BE customers have been contacted by O2 sales teams after they have used the BE line checker. We have revised our processes to ensure this stops happening immediately and would like to apologise for any confusion caused.

The line checker technology is shared between O2 and BE. The information has been used in accordance with our Privacy Policy, although not as it was intended."

It's sadly very common for some ISPs to chase customers up after running an ISPs website based broadband line check. For example, TalkTalk often do this, although unlike some they do at least warn people via their front page to expect the odd call. It would be nice if customers were also given an option to refuse such calls.

UPDATE 07:09am

Added O2's official reply into the news content (near the bottom). O2 has also informed us that the changes they implemented were done on Friday, despite initially telling AAISP that they had been performed earlier last week (Monday).

UPDATE 12:05pm

AAISP has now re-enabled their BE line checker following O2's latest assurances (as above). However they remain deeply displeased at their supplier's attitude.

AAISP Status Update

The issue is that O2 thought they had consent as the O2 web site checker did ask for consent, hence the reason they were calling. They have confirmed this was stopped on Friday.

Naturally we are not at all happy about this. When we were told about this on Monday we said it had to be stopped by the end of the day and we were told it was being stopped. Had we been told that it would not be until Friday the checker would have been disabled on Monday.

I am also unhappy that it took until Friday to stop it due to "contractual obligations" or some such waffle. If you are criminally breaking the law, contracts do not come in to it!

In light of the assurances today we are enabling the checker again, but we need customers to let us know immediately if you get calls from O2 or Be as a result. Thank you.

UPDATE 22nd February 2011

O2's sibling ISP, Be Broadband UK, has also issued a statement.

Be Broadband Statement

We are aware of an issue where prospective BE customers have been contacted by O2 sales teams after they have used the BE line checker.

We have revised our processes to ensure this stops happening immediately and would like to apologise for any confusion caused.

The line checker technology is shared between O2 and BE. The information has been used in accordance with our Privacy Policy, although not as it was intended.

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