WARNING, WCLI (Wholesale Calls) - the 'dangerous' version of CPS (Carrier PreSelect)

bunking_off

I agree that we're at cross-purposes, not helped by BT being an overall name for a series of internal operating units.

I hope that we're agreed that if you have line rental from BTRetail and simply choose another default calls provider, that should not mean the loss of ability to select an alternate provider on call-by-call basis. Loss of this ability only occurs if you take line rental from another provider (e.g. Sky), because they are then not regulated to provide access to alternate calls providers in the way that BT Retail are. To be clear, the ability to use 1xxx codes to select an alternate network provider is a function of whether your line rental is with BTRetail (regulated) or someone else (not regulated). WCLI and CPS are two alternate means of allowing a customer to choose their default calls provider...I agree with JustPassingBy that the term "equivalent" should be avoided because it has a very particular regulatory meaning, not applicable to this situation.

The confusion I believe is around the meaning of an end-user dialling 1280. My interpretation (& I think YoungNick's) is that 1280 over-rides your default calls provider to use BTRetail (who just happen to use BT network). JustPassingBy's interpretation seems to be that 1280 over-rides your default provider to use BT network.

I struggle to reconcile that interpretation...BT's network hosts a number of service providers (amongst them BTRetail and Sky), so it's meaningless to say you wish to use the BT network as it would leave ambiguity as to who would bill you. In any case, which network carries the call is an irrelevance...the customer is choosing their calls service provider, with 1280 being the code for BTRetail. In theory BTRetail could choose to use a network other than BT, if they so wish (indeed, at one stage as part of posturing about LLU pricing, they proposed to do so...). As a parallel, if you choose to use someone like the Post Offfice, they routinely choose a network provider periodically, based upon who of the big networks is giving them the best deal...the networ used is transparent / irrelevant to the customer.

If WCLI (WCLI, not WLR) was resulting in access being denied to other call providers' 1xxx codes, you can rest assured that the providers concerned would be complaining to Ofcom. I can only assume that someone in BT has chosen that it wouldn't be a good idea for BTRetail to complain to Ofcom about the behaviour of BTWholesale, and is instead choosing to use it as a winback opportunity from Sky.

System

Or, just possibly, BT Retail never liked 1280, because it enables people to get BT Retail to provide only the calls for which BT is cheap(ish) - such as 0845; or only enough calls to qualify for the 'free' CLIP that BT Retail bundles with line rental? So BT Retail is glad to see BT Wholesale selling a clumsily or malevolently designed product which forces people to choose between (eg) Sky and BT Retail for all their calls (except that, if they choose BT Retail, they can still use 18185 etc). What remains puzzling is that WCLI has been on offer for many months (even a year?), but it was only in September 2008 that BT Retail purported to change their conditions for residential telephony to say that 1280 won't work, nuffink to do with us squire, please blame Sky, and please don't ask awkward questions about BT Wholesale.

System

Mr Ingham of Ofcom has further responded to me as follows:

WCLI is a wholesale product which Sky are using to provide a calls only service. As you are aware, the BT override does not work but all other override codes do work. This is the way in which BT Wholesale have designed this wholesale offering [italics added] and it is not a question of Sky choosing to remove access to this particular code.

This is not a case of customers being slammed as these are wholesale arrangements through which Sky provide their retail services. While there is an impact at the retail level Sky have written to their customers to advise them of this fact. If customers are not happy then they can simply move to another Provider.

This evades the possibility of collusion between BT Wholesale and BT Retail to prevent consumers from shopping around call-by-call, and evades the point that BT Retail residential customers who take calls-only Skytalk (etc) are paying BT Retail for a bundle including calls they cannot make.

bunking_off

So he at least acknowledges that there's a design issue...

Incidentally, is his first name Peter? If so you're getting replies from a pretty senior Ofcom official.

In summary, while it's wrong that they're unwilling to intervene, ultimately I agree with his advice...bin Sky & go with a provider who use CPS / a network other than BTWholesale, so you're not ripped off by 1280 not working correctly. Whatever you do, don't use this as a catalyst to go back to BTRetail....if the conspiracy theories are correct you'll have played straight into their hands.

System

No, it's John.