1. Oftel regularly publishes a range of data and information including market information from the industry, market research amongst residential and business consumers, and international benchmarking of prices. Oftel from time to time conducts mystery shopping research to assist it in assessing different aspects of the telecoms service and advice received by consumers.

2. Oftel also encourages the industry to publish information to help inform consumers in making choices.

3. This note sets out Oftel’s view on external use of these two different types of information.

Oftel’s research and data

4. The purpose of the Oftel produced data is to provide an up to date and more comprehensive understanding of the telecoms market, and of consumer and supplier behaviour. This is to enable more evidence based policy making and policy implementation testing. Reports are published to improve transparency of the data and information used in Oftel's policy conclusions, which assists external stakeholders in giving better informed feedback to consultation documents and other Oftel publications. All information published by Oftel is subject to Crown copyright.

Market research

5. In the case of the quarterly market research programme, surveys are conducted amongst 2000 UK residential consumers who are representative of the UK adult population and 700 small and medium sized businesses, representative of UK businesses. The data is therefore statistically robust, although it does not necessarily claim to be representative of the customer profiles of individual operators. Where samples are sufficiently robust, Oftel publishes data by operator and by consumer socio-economic group either to show where differences exist or where the groups are broadly similar.

International benchmarking

6. With regards to Oftel's programme for International Benchmarking, the purpose of this work is to provide a comparison between countries of prices for key telecoms services, for a range of consumer profiles. Although providing a sound overall picture, the comparison of companies within each country should not be taken as necessarily being representative for an individual consumer. It would not be considered appropriate to quote individual operator rankings from these studies.

Market information

7. Data for Oftel’s Market Information is provided largely on a voluntary basis by the participating telecoms operators. The information is valuable to Oftel and Oftel is extremely sensitive to any possible abuse of the published data. While information for named operators in the publication can be considered reliable, data for smaller operators is less so and, although aggregated, should be used with caution. These difficulties are highlighted in the publication. It may also be possible to derive additional comparisons from the publication, which may be less useful. For example, revenue and volume information can be used to approximate price levels. While this may have some validity at a broad level, revenues will be affected by a number of unpublished factors and Oftel would not support the use of this data alone to infer price differences.

8. Oftel's approach is that information from Oftel documents is protected by Crown copyright. It can be re-used, free of charge, providing it is reproduced accurately, not misrepresented in any way and sourced to Oftel. Where possible, Oftel will ask to see how it will be used to allow it to keep track of where and how the information is being reproduced. Oftel asks that where the information is to be used for advertising purposes, it is notified of the intended use prior to publication. If Oftel finds that information is being used inappropriately, it may contact the publication to inform them and ask that it be corrected or in extreme cases deleted.

9. However, if a third party chooses to quote Oftel’s survey results, for example in publicity material, about which other parties subsequently make a complaint (eg to the Advertising Standards Authority ('ASA')), Oftel may be asked to comment on the use by that third party of its survey results. In such instances, Oftel may comment on, amongst other things, whether the results were quoted not only in the appropriate (or inappropriate) context, but also whether the quoted results were a true reflection of the 'wider picture' (eg whether the one result quoted truly reflects an operator's performance in that particular area, and whether it is consistent with other results and information).

10. Equally, in instances where no complaint is received, but where Oftel identifies, amongst other things, that a third party has used Oftel published data or information in a misleading way, Oftel reserves its right to take any other appropriate action it decides is necessary.

11. Oftel would ask that a third party refer to the individual reports, which contain guidance on the issues that must be considered when interpreting and using the information they contain. Oftel will be happy to discuss its research and data with third parties in assisting them interpret and understand the results.

Industry information initiatives

12. The policy outlined above applies to third party use of Oftel produced data and information (Market Information, Market Research, International Benchmarking). However, Oftel may also comment, where it is appropriate, on the use of survey information produced by industry as part of a co- or self-regulatory initiative that has Oftel involvement or is sponsored or endorsed by Oftel. For example, Oftel commented recently to ASA as to the use of the results of the Mobile Network Operator's Call Success Rate Surveys quoted in an advertisement.