Posted: 19th Apr, 2005 By: MarkJ
The UK Internet Services Providers Association (
ISPA) has voiced its support for Ofcom's Telecom's Review. They also believe that equality of access to BTs networks can be achieved without structural separation:
ISPA believes that BT must demonstrate it is serious about equivalence by establishing equality of access at the product level and introducing evident behavioural change. BT must become more open and transparent to allay industry fears of any potential abuse of market power.
If equivalence is to be achieved, all BTs internal and external ISP customers must be serviced in exactly the same way with exactly the same products. This demands equality of access to information, service features, provisioning and pricing.
ISPA believes that possible changes, short of the full structural separation of BT could include:
- the physical separation of BTs different divisions so they operate out of different locations.
- the different divisions of BT reporting to the BT Board through separate channels.
- focused regulation at the highest level of the organisation delivering consequent de-regulation further down the line.However, the
ISPA is still clear that, should any of these changes fail to be produced, separation must remain a serious option. The words almost mirror Ofcom's own.