OFCOM could end BT price controls this summer

paul_h

OFCOM is considering ending the the regulatory price controls for BT on 1st August. This would open the way for BT to actively undercut competitors if it wished, which could possibly lead to a "price war" starting in the home phone market.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4828054.stm

OFCOM has promised to keep safeguards in place for "vulnerable groups" and added that the current proposals would only affect prices and not other areas such as BT's obligations to provide a standard phone line service in remote areas.

bbb_uk

This could be a good thing but also a bad thing. Will Ofcom put price constraints on BT to prevent them hiking their prices like they've done for several things recently.

I know BT only increased their linerental because they were forced into increasing the gap between linerental they charge us consumers and WLR they charge other telephony providers but BT know that probably a significant number of customers on BT Together 1 are actually using other carriers (CPS) so would there be safeguards to prevent sudden hikes in linerental for BT Together 1 customers?

I know we can move to other suppliers but of course a lot of these suppliers will eventually block Indirect Access codes eventually just like TalkTalk have done. This does then 'limit' our choice of using several suppliers to get the cheapest for all our type of calls. This is what Oftel (yes Oftel) actually mentioned when they introduced CPS.

I know Ofcom can't force CPS suppliers to allow us to use other providers but if BT get greedy they could increase their linerental again which would probably mean a lot more customers would switch linerental suppliers but then of course that comes at the expense of losing the ability to use other cheaper providers for some types of calls.

utilitybroker

Interesting article here http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/21/bt_price_war/
on this subject.