2007 resposes

Response to 0870 draft determination to resolve 0870 call termination rate disputes between BT and various operators

Issued November 30, 2007

Executive Summary

• BT believes that Ofcom’s proposed termination rate will undermine their wider policy objective to protect consumers by keeping consumer call charges at a reasonable level. By choosing a high termination rate Ofcom will ultimately increase the cost of calls to geographic and 0870 numbers for all consumers. 
• BT is disappointed that Ofcom has failed to propose reasonable termination charges for calls to 0870 numbers. Termination rates that are potentially three times the equivalent geographic rates are an unreasonable cost for BT and its operator customers to incur. 
• BT considers that Ofcom has failed to properly construe the nature and extent of the End-to-End Connectivity obligation. 
• BT considers that the Gains from Trade test is inappropriate to resolve a dispute of this nature and has been incorrectly applied. 
• BT considers that Ofcom’s methodology is flawed; Ofcom has provided no justifiable rationale for choosing the highest termination rate possible within its identified proposed range. 
• BT considers that Ofcom’s no-arbitrage model is flawed; there is simply no justifiable or rationale reason for adopting the island operator model. 
• BT considers that Ofcom’s decision to mandate specific rates, in the way that it has done, removes BT’s ability to commercially negotiate with TCPs; this will inevitably result in distortion of the market. 
• BT is concerned that there has been insufficient time to respond as fully as it would like the given timescales. BT is considering what additional information, if any, it is necessary to provide. BT would expect Ofcom to consider this information prior to publishing its final determination.

You can download the full response as a PDF document

BT would welcome comments on this response. Comments should be addressed by e-mail to Neena Rupani at neena.rupani@bt.com.