Posted: 03rd May, 2006 By: MarkJ
The Carphone Warehouse (TalkTalk) has lost a crucial appeal to Ofcom, which could have seen the cost of bulk migration between broadband platforms (BT >
LLU etc.) cut:
If the draft ruling is confirmed, Carphone will have to pay more to migrate each customer to its new phone and broadband service than it had hoped, adding to its overheads.
Last month, Carphone announced details of a new product based on fully unbundled lines that would provide a broadband service, inclusive phone calls and line rental for just £20.99 a month - massively undercutting similar services from rivals. Carphone is currently signing up customers and plans to start migration onto its new LLU platform later in the summer.
But it wants to pay the promo price of £20 per line to migrate its customers onto its LLU platform - not £34.86. When it failed to reach agreement with BT earlier this year it complained to Ofcom claiming that the £20 SMPF offer should also be extended to fully unbundled (MPF) lines. Not to do so was "discriminatory", it said.Ofcom will leave the 'draft' ruling open until the middle of May, with a final verdict due during early June the following month.
In the meantime Ofcom has proposed a slight decrease in cost to £29.06, which is obviously nothing near the £20 Carphone had hoped to see. More @
The Register.