Oftel has started a review of competition in the provision of basic retail telephony services which will establish whether continued retail price controls are necessary. The questions the review will be asking are set out in the consultation document, Competition in the provision of fixed telephony services, published in July.

BT has been subject to such price controls on a set of residential products, notably line rental and calls, since 1984.

However, Oftel needs to assess whether competition is now in itself sufficient to keep down BT's prices for consumers.

If it is not, Oftel may introduce further price controls after the present control ends in July 2002 or introduce other measures to stimulate competition.

This document commences Oftel's review of competition in fixed telephony markets. Comments are welcome at any stage.

Oftel will publish its initial proposals for future arrangements in a consultation document to be published in December 2001. Its final proposals will be set out in a statement to be published in spring of 2002.

For further information contact Mike Galvin (tel: 020 7634 8869/e-mail: mike.galvin@oftel.gov.uk).