Ofcom Prep More Contract Clarity for Broadband and Mobile Consumers

The UK telecoms regulator has hinted that it intends to improve “end of contract notifications” for phone, mobile and broadband consumers, which among other things could require ISPs to “proactively inform” customers when they are approaching or are at the end of their minimum contract term.

Last summer Ofcom began a new consultation that was designed to improve consumer engagement and switching (here), which partly covered for the fact that the regulator had at the same time buried an earlier proposal that might have made it easier to switch between separate broadband network platforms (e.g. Openreach, Virgin Media and KCOM).

Instead the regulator sought views on how to improve the UK market so that consumers are more likely to become “engaged” and swap around. Since then Ofcom has conducted additional research (here) and this revealed that some people are still unsure whether they are within their minimum contract period, or when their contract ends.

In response they’ve decided to tackle issues of consumer engagement in a phased approach and their first phase will examine end of contract notifications.

Ofcom Statement

“In the first phase of our work to increase consumer engagement, we are focusing on ‘end of contract notifications’ – whereby providers would proactively inform customers when they are approaching or are at the end of their minimum contractual term. We aim to consult on proposals in July 2018.

This will be followed by a second phase of work, which will consider other reasons why some consumers may find it difficult to shop around – such as understanding their usage requirements, or navigating the range and complexity of deals and packages available – and potential ways to address these.”

We should point out that some ISPs already notify consumers when their contract is nearly at an end, although this certainly isn’t universal and many will simply leave the onus to their end-users. Suffice to say that it’s easy to forget such dates after you’ve signed-up, which is a problem because some providers can charge significantly higher post-contract prices.

As usual we’ll be keeping an eye on this and will report back once the regulator has put some concrete proposals on the table. Requiring ISPs to notify their end-users would certainly be a reasonable place to begin.