Two more telcos run to Oftel over BT BB ‘margin squeeze’

Anyone else not happy?

By Tim Richardson, 30th April 2003

Ensure Ease of Recovery with Asigra’s Agentless Software

Two more companies have lodged formal complaints against planned price cuts for one of BT's wholesale ADSL products.

Telecoms outfits mediaWays.uk Ltd and Your Communications have joined the chorus of complaints from Energis, Thus and Tiscali alleging that planned price cuts to BT's IPStream product will lead to a margin squeeze.

The price drop announced earlier this month only applies to BT's 'IPStream' service - the wholesale end-to-end service provided by BT Wholesale to the telco's retail operations and other service providers.

However, Energis, Thus, Tiscali (and now mediaWays.uk Ltd and Your Communications)have complained to Oftel claiming that BT has failed to pass on similar price cuts to its wholesale Datastream service - a product that allows other service providers to use their own networks to provide competitive broadband services.

A spokesman for Your Communications told The Register that the planned cut in price for the IPStream product was a "classic margin squeeze".

He welcomed any move by Oftel to postpone the proposed price cuts while the regulator completed its investigation into the matter. However, realistically, he doubted whether Oftel would do so.

Last week, industry insiders told The Register that Oftel was mulling the idea of blocking the price cut while it carried out a full investigation into complaints that the cost cut is "anti-competitive". ®