Oftel rules no unfair advantage for BT

By Matt Whipp

Posted on 11 Jul 2003 at 16:21

Oftel has decided that BT's use of joint billing and its 150 customer services number did not give it an unfair advantage in marketing broadband.

David Edmonds, Director General of Telecommunications said today: 'Oftel looked at each of the issues raised by Freeserve, and considered them in detail. In this instance we have concluded that BT's marketing activity using the 'blue bill' and '150' customer service line does not prevent Freeserve competing on a fair basis.'

Oftel says its investigation revealed very few broadband signups resulted from using the 150 customer service number as a channel for sales and marketing of broadband and that Freeserve and other providers could easily compete equally with BT's ability to bundle broadband charges onto its familiar 'blue bill' for phone calls with credit card or direct debit agreements.

Similarly, Oftel found that the number of people who bought BT broadband on the back of marketing material included in the BTUpdate leaflet included in the standard 'blue bill' for voice calls was not unfair - as the leaflet is sent out to all its customers - with or without interest in broadband - such marketing is an expensive way of selling the service, and rivals could compete effectively with better targeted and therefore less expensive mail campaigns.

Freeserve submitted its complaint to Oftel on 22 October 2002.

However, concluding that the use of the 150 service for marketing resulted in insignificant sales only reveals that the strategy was unsuccessful - not whether it was uncompetitive.

In April, after the company had taken a similarly dismissed complaint to the Competition Commission Appeals Tribunal (CCAT), the CCAT found that Oftel's investigation into Freeserve's allegation of predatory pricing by BT had been unclear and forced the regulator to reconsider it.

Freeserve has not said whether it would consider taking a similar course of action with this latest decision by Oftel. A spokesperson, however, said 'We are carefully examining Oftel's detailed non-infringment decision and are considering our position.'