Oftel would like your views on the contents of this Guide. Please respond by writing to:
Paul West, Oftel, 50 Ludgate Hill, London EC4M 7JJ, Telephone: 0171 634 8743.
You can also approach any group or association which may be responding to the consultation. In particular, tell your local Telecommunications Advisory Committee if there is one - see the BT Phone book or ring Russell Ball (tel: 0171 634 8772) for help.
The deadline for responses is 16 February 1996 on Price Control issues and 29 February for Universal Service issues.
There will be a further two week consultation period on universal service issues. This will allow you to comment on the responses placed in Oftel's library if you wish to. The deadline for this is 14 March.
All written responses will be made available publicly in Oftel's library. Please mark clearly any information you regard as confidential, so we can exclude it. Links can be set up between our Web pages on the Internet and responses on other Web pages. Please contact Mary-Ann Auckland (tel: 0171 634 8751) if you wish to do this for your response.
Please let us know if you have difficulty in meeting these deadlines and we will do our best to accommodate you.
Sight impaired customers who wish to have the text of the Guide on audio tape should contact:
Russell Ball, Oftel Advisory Committee Secretariat, 50 Ludgate Hill, London EC4M 7JJ, Tel: 0171 634 8772
Copies of the full consultative documents are available free from Oftel (phone 0171 634 8754 or 8764/5).
We have arranged a public meeting for consumers on 20 February to discuss the new price controls. A similar meeting for universal service issues will take place on 27 February. Invitations will be sent out in January and early February respectively. If you would like to come but do not receive an invitation, please contact Peter Westley at Oftel on 0171 634 8890.
These meetings will enable you to discuss the issues in more detail. We will explain some of the trickier problems and answer any questions you wish to ask. Qualified signers will be available to help hearing impaired people. Please let us know if you require any other special help for example, if you are a wheelchair user.
This Guide accompanies our Consultative Documents: Pricing of Telecommunications Services from 1997 and Universal Telecommunications Services published on 4 and 18 December respectively. It focuses on the issues which are particularly important to residential customers. It does not cover everything, especially not all the detail surrounding the new price control arrangements. (Please go to the Publications Page to access other Oftel documents on this Web site.)
Why not try to read the full documents as well and do let us have your views.
The purpose of the review of price control arrangements is to establish a new basis for the price control on BT to apply from August 1997. The new system of price controls will affect all telecoms users. BT's customers will be directly affected. It will also affect the customers of other operators. This is because those operators will have to take into account the charges which BT makes to them for using its network as well as BT's charges to its customers when deciding what prices to charge their own customers.
We need your views before these important decisions are taken.
We are also reviewing the level of universal service provision. Our aim is to set a basic level of service that will be available to all residential customers, including those with additional needs, at affordable prices. The review will also consider what framework could be used to provide a higher level of service to schools and public access points such as libraries.
We need your views on what this basic level should be, how it can be paid for and how we can best introduce competition to provide it.
We will produce further consultation documents in March 1996 on price control issues and after Easter 1996 on universal service. These will outline our latest proposals and invite responses on them. Our final proposals will follow at the end of May 1996. Consultation on them will last until mid-July 1996. After that BT will either agree to the proposals or, if it does not, Oftel will refer the matter to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission (MMC) to resolve.
As you can see, both reviews allow for wide consultation. We recognise that deadlines for responses are shorter than we have allowed for consultation on major issues in the past. Nevertheless, we think that two separate consultations are probably more effective than a single one.
If you have difficulty in meeting any deadline, please let us know.
We have set up a Consumer Panel to advise on the interests of residential customers. The Panel's membership and terms of reference are shown at the back of this Guide. Oftel has also taken advice from a panel of expert economics and business advisers.
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