This article is more than 1 year old

'LLU Czar' to rule on Bulldog/BT dispute

There's a fault on my line, dear Peter, dear Peter...

Bulldog has called on the Telecom Adjudicator to intervene in a row over fault repairs between the local loop unbundling operator (LLUO) and BT.

The complaint - one of a dozen gripes that date back to May 2003 - had been referred to Ofcom in March 2004. However, following the creation of the Telecommunications Adjudication Scheme for LLU in May last year, Bulldog withdrew its complaint and opted instead for the matter to be dealt by "LLU czar" Peter Black.

That dispute now appears to have ended in stalemate prompting Bulldog to call for the formal intervention of Black to resolve the matter himself.

In a letter to Black, Bulldog - which is owned by Cable & Wireless, said that "no progress has been made to resolve the disparity" and that it has "therefore decided to refer the dispute related to...fault repair levels to the Telecommunications Adjudicator for ruling in accordance with the Dispute Resolution Rules for Local Loop Unbundling."

A spokeswoman for BT Wholesale said the telco was assessing the complaint and would respond. The Telecoms Adjudicator is due to rule on the matter within two weeks.

A month ago BT outlined its "proposed regulatory settlement" with Ofcom and the UK's telecoms industry in response to the regulator's review of the telecoms sector in which it called for "substantive behavioural and organisational changes" at BT - including giving rivals equal access to its wholesale products.

At the time BT said its proposals would ensure "equal access to the services and assets associated with the local loop".

Despite BT's rhetoric, LLUO's have continued to complain that BT is dragging its feet and failing to put in place measures to allow confident investment in LLU.

In his latest assessment of the LLU sector Black said BT was failing to hit key performance targets and that BT's failure to deliver was forcing some operators to put their marketing plans on hold.

And although he was seeing improvements, "significant operational problems remain," he said. ®

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