ISPs Meet Ofcom Over BT ADSL Prices
Posted: 21st Aug, 2004 By: MarkJ
It's beginning to look as if a recent meeting (Friday) between the UKIF/ISPA and Ofcom, regarding BT's forthcoming business ADSL price hikes, may not have materialised any positive results:
Sources have revealed that BT have claimed that if the regulatory report find that prices do need to alter between two of the incumbents offerings (DataStream and IPStream), the telco would face penalty until such time that the price changes were in place. OFCOM confirmed to UKIF today, that this is not the case, and that publication of their report would accompany a Notification for BT to alter its prices. That said, no action appears to be looming against the confident BT, for their apparent premature announcement.
Much of this of course is hearsay until the Margin Squeeze Test (as its correctly known) is published, although it is widely expected to find as everyone thinks, and that the prices do need alteration (meaning the IPStream price increases will stand). That said, BT are also quoted, according to sources as confirming that if the MST report fails to find DataStream and IPStream pricing needs to change, they will immediately review their recent price increase.
The UK-Bug item is sparse on detail, much as you'd expect until something more official is released. What's clear is that BT doesn't intend to budge unless Ofcom does.
There's still no clear explanation as to why BT has been allowed to get away with giving such short notice for any changes when the 'margin squeeze' test has been around since May.
Sources have revealed that BT have claimed that if the regulatory report find that prices do need to alter between two of the incumbents offerings (DataStream and IPStream), the telco would face penalty until such time that the price changes were in place. OFCOM confirmed to UKIF today, that this is not the case, and that publication of their report would accompany a Notification for BT to alter its prices. That said, no action appears to be looming against the confident BT, for their apparent premature announcement.
Much of this of course is hearsay until the Margin Squeeze Test (as its correctly known) is published, although it is widely expected to find as everyone thinks, and that the prices do need alteration (meaning the IPStream price increases will stand). That said, BT are also quoted, according to sources as confirming that if the MST report fails to find DataStream and IPStream pricing needs to change, they will immediately review their recent price increase.
The UK-Bug item is sparse on detail, much as you'd expect until something more official is released. What's clear is that BT doesn't intend to budge unless Ofcom does.
There's still no clear explanation as to why BT has been allowed to get away with giving such short notice for any changes when the 'margin squeeze' test has been around since May.
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