Ofcom Unshackles BT from Pricing Controls

By Johanne Torres

TMCnet Contributing Editor

 

UK telecom regulator Ofcom officially announced this week that effective August 1st, it will remove pricing controls it has imposed on telecom giant BT for over more than two decades. Ofcom initially proposed to remove its pricing controls it imposed on BT once sufficient competition in the UK's telecom market had been established. The regulator had announced the initial proposal to unshackle the telecom from its pricing controls back in March.

 

The move will not only benefit BT, but all other providers as well. This will enable all operators to set their own retail prices for the nearly 11 million households and small businesses in the UK that now use providers other than BT to make phone calls.

 

BT welcomed the news with great joy and highlighted the benefits for its consumers. "Ofcom's decision is good news for customers. The UK has enjoyed one of the most competitive telecoms market in the world for a number of years and a freer BT will deliver even better value and innovation for our residential customers.  We will now look at how we can simplify our pricing structures and make them more user-friendly," said Ian Livingston, CEO BT Retail in a statement.

 

Ofcom

BT

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Johanne Torres is contributing editor for TMCnet and Internet Telephony magazine. To see more articles by Johanne Torres, please visit Johanne's columnist page.