Ofcom today published a statement on its review of retail and wholesale ISDN 30 markets. ISDN 30 is a product that provides between 8 and 30 digital telephone lines for businesses.
Following consultation, Ofcom has today decided to remove retail regulations on BT as the retail market is now competitive but maintain wholesale regulations to ensure the retail market continues to function well.
Ofcom has published its annual Communications Market Report into the UK’s TV, radio, broadband, telecoms and mobile industries. This year’s report shows that consumers are spending almost half of their waking hours using media and communications. The report also reveals that although usage is increasing, spend on communications services continues to decrease.
The report can be found here: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/cmr
Separately, Ofcom has also published Communications Market Reports for England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. The reports highlight trends in take up and use of communications in the devolved Nations and the English Regions.
The reports can be found here:
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/cmrengland
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/cmrscotland
The latest change to Ofcom’s Competition and Consumer Enforcement Bulletin was made today and relates to closed case: CW/01042/01/10 Dispute between BT and each of Vodafone, T-Mobile, O2, Orange, H3G, and Everything Everywhere about BT’s termination charges for 0845 and 0870 calls.
The latest change to Ofcom’s Competition and Consumer Enforcement Bulletin was made today and relates to closed compliance case: CW/00998/09/08 Own-initiative investigation into Telephonics Integrated Telephony Limited about sales and marketing and the use of information obtained during the transfer process.
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Ofcom commissioned a research study on mobile location technology in order to gain a better understanding of the systems, technology and capabilities required for provision of location information during emergency calls from mobile phones.
The Independent Office of the Telecommunications Adjudicator (OTA2) today published its update for July 2010. This shows that at the end of July there were 6.92 million unbundled lines and 6.01 million Wholesale Line Rental lines. The number of telephone numbers using Carrier Pre-Select was 3.31 million.
The update can be found here: http://www.offta.org.uk/
Homephonechoices.co.uk has today been awarded Ofcom accreditation for its price comparison service.
The Ofcom price accreditation scheme logo is awarded to websites that have had their price comparison services put through a rigorous independent audit. The audit checks whether the information provided to consumers is accessible, accurate, transparent, comprehensive and up to date.
Ofcom has today published an initial study looking at the effectiveness of speech recognition technology used in VoIP communications and how it might improve accessibility to telecommunications services for hearing impaired consumers.
Ofcom confirmed this week that it will make two new pan-European 116 numbers available in the UK.
The two numbers are:
The next stage is for potential relevant service providers to express their interest in using these numbers by 1st October 2010.
Ofcom today confirmed plans to make it easier for consumers to exercise their right to take unresolved complaints to a free independent resolution service.
From next year, communications providers will have to include information of the relevant dispute resolution service on all paper bills. They will also have to write to consumers whose complaints have not been resolved within eight weeks to inform them of their right to take their complaint to a dispute resolution service.
Ofcom is also establishing a single mandatory Code of Practice with minimum standards for how providers must handle complaints from consumers. The Code of Practice will provide consistency in standards and will give Ofcom powers to take enforcement action against those providers who do not treat complainants fairly.
The full news release can be found here.
The statement can be found here.
