Cases Opened: June 1999

ABS Telecom has complained that BT’s offer of payment for terminating calls to ABS’s new 0845 service is discriminatory.

BT’s policy of suspending changes to charges for operators who reject its proposals has resulted in two levels of charges for the same services, here 0845, until the matter is resolved. BT then applies any changes retrospectively.

The original charge continues to apply to operators who rejected BT’s Operator Charge Change Notices (OCCNs) within the timescale laid down in its Standard Interconnect Agreement. BT’s revised charge is offered to operators who either accept BT’s OCCNs or who seek to open new services or change the terms of existing services after the date of BT’s OCCNs.

ABS were thus offered significantly less for calls to its new 0845 service than operators with existing services but who are in dispute with BT. They were also offered less than other operators with new services because, for a new 0845 service with no prior traffic history, BT offers operators a payment based on an industry average conveyance charge until actual traffic measurements are taken. In ABS’s case it already had an existing 0800 service, calls to which BT would appear to have taken as representative of calls to the new 0845 service, thereby giving ABS an even lower payment than if BT had applied its industry average charge.

ABS maintains that the two services are entirely unrelated and the customer calling patterns are likely to be totally different.

Oftel has informed ABS that it does not view BT’s policy of suspending charge increases to operators with whom it is in dispute as unduly discriminatory, since it applies equally to all operators. In the meantime Oftel has asked BT to comment on the reasons for its lower payment offer to ABS than to other operators opening new services.

The central issue is that the application of a two tier charging system gives a cash flow advantage to established operators who happen to be in dispute with BT. Meanwhile it militates against operators seeking to open new services but who cannot compete for service provider business owing to the lower payments they receive from BT.

This particular complaint will be resolved when Oftel makes the forthcoming NTS determinations (target September 1999) when all operators will be able to seek payments on the same basis and from the determined dates. The issue of two-tier charging will, however, continue to emerge whenever similar disputes over BT’s proposed charges arise. Oftel is investigating how this can be avoided and will make its recommendations to the industry as soon as possible.