Oftel moves to lower UK phone bills

Telecoms regulator demands increased competition

Rene Millman

Telecoms regulator Oftel announced plans yesterday to increase competition in the market which should see lower phone bills in the UK.

The watchdog wants BT to rent its phone lines to other telecoms service providers at the same rate it charges its own retail division.

Advertisement

Competitors will be able to offer customers one bill covering line rental and the cost of calls, rather than the present arrangement where BT presents a bill for line rental, and competitors bill separately for calls.

The proposal could see the introduction of flat rate subscriptions for unlimited calls, which have proved popular for internet service providers, or the abolition of line rental with costs recovered through call charges.

The regulator hopes that increased competition will eventually dictate prices rather than Oftel itself. "The aim is to reduce call prices through increased competition which should lead to the eventual abolition of price controls," Oftel stated.

"Competition has begun to bite," said the watchdog's director general David Edmonds. "The market is changing and regulation needs to change to reflect and accelerate this."

Edmonds added that a continued safeguard on price control remained essential while competition in the calls market develops.

BT's prices for services to the lowest spending customers will be pegged at their current level and will not be allowed to rise with inflation.

The incumbent and its rivals have three months to respond to the proposals, and a final decision is expected in late June.

  • Have your say
  • Send to a friend
  • Print
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • Share

Tags:

Do you agree?

Related whitepapers

Related jobs

Most watched

Xperia X1

Video Review: Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

First Looks Editor Ian Williams gets hands on with the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

iPhone

Video Review: iPhone 3GS

We put Apple's latest iPhone through its paces

IT white papers

Search white papers

Top categories

Poll

Poll: Summer smartphones

Poll: Summer smartphones

Which smartphone will you be taking to the beach this summer?

View poll results

Advertisement

Advertisement

Newsletter signup

Sign up for our range of FREE newsletters:

Existing User

Newsletter user login:

Enter email address to edit your newsletter preferences

Job of the week

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Hiring now on ComputingCareers:

Related IT jobs

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Spotlight

HTC Hero

Hands on with the HTC Hero

V3.co.uk gets a walk through of the Hero, which includes...

NetGear ReadyNAS NVX

Review: NetGear ReadyNAS NVX

NetGear's four-bay compact network-attached storage gets a serious speed boost

AMD

AMD adds to six-core Opteron line up

New HE processors promise even lower power consumption

Adobe Systems

Adobe launches ColdFusion 9 and ColdFusion Builder

Firm promises enhanced developer productivity

Primary Navigation