http://www.ofcom.org.uk/telecoms/groups/nts_focus/notes/nts_231008

NTS Focus Group - 23 October 2008 - 2.00 pm Ofcom

Agenda item (1) - Introductions

Attendance:
Mike Barford  Tiscali
Geoff Brighton Ofcom
Kath Embleton  BT
Catherine Gerosa Invomo
Will Goodall  Flextel
Sean Hartley BT
Justin Hornby C&W (Chair)
Jo Leese BT
John Lockyer  Teamphone
Steve McGeary  Via-Vox
Andy Martin  IV Response
Andrew Monk CPW
Laurent Pariat C&W
Sandra Reid VirginMedia


By telephone
Colin Scott  Thus
Warren Berdo  SkyCom
Andrew Wileman VirginMedia


Apologies:
Lesa Green KCom
Clive Hillier Ofcom


Agenda (2): Update / progress report on the current 'live' NTS related consultations / investigations: (Ofcom/All)

Review of Regulation of Premium Rate Services
Geoff Brighton (Ofcom) gave an update. Ofcom hope to issue a document in December setting out options for changing the PRS condition. Andrew Monk (CPW) suggested that it made sense to link this document in with the recent PhonepayPlus questionnaire relating to the initial stages in consulting upon a 12th Code of Practice.

General Condition 14 Enforcement Programme
Ofcom has written to each operator where issues were found in relation to compliance with GC14. The majority of operators contacted are now compliant, but several had asked for an extension in timescales. These primarily related to the difficulty in changing publications outside of the standard printing cycle. Ofcom is considering each of these requests.

Agenda Item (3): 0870 Statement and Dispute

Geoff indicated that the 0870 statement was still being written and publication was expected in December.

The 0870 dispute was restarted at the beginning of October and further information requests will be issued to the parties to the dispute in the next few days. These will elicit further comments on the dispute and the rates in particular.

Will Goodall (Flextel) asked if the cost benefit analysis from the original consultation was being revisited. Will maintained that the original consumer protection measures had been lost with the withdrawal of pre-call announcements and as a result a new cost benefit analysis was required. Will claimed that speculative costs had been an issue in both the Number Portability and Mobile Termination disputes and there was a risk that current proposals shared the same weakness. Geoff noted the comments.

Agenda Item (4): 0871 Statement

Geoff indicated that this document is going through the final stages of legal scrutiny and that it was expected to be published by the end of the year.

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Agenda Item (5 & 6): BT Interconnect Notices

Changes to 0800 mobile interconnect payments.
These related specifically to the changes to mobile ‘freephone’ rates. Warren Berdo (Skycom) indicated that SkyCom had spoken to Clive Hillier (Ofcom) regarding mobile rates. Warren asked Geoff for confirmation that Ofcom had no direct regulatory powers to intervene in the mobile market as it was considered to be competitive. Confirmation was given.

Ofcom’s opinion was also sought about the mobile practice of requiring End-Users to drop the leading 0 and redial a freephone number. Geoff indicated that the mobiles were free to do so and that Ofcom had no view on the practice. Concern was also voiced that there was no way for callers to identify the cost of the call. A parallel was drawn with 0870 where tighter regulation was being enforced, but nothing appears to be in place for freephone. Geoff was asked if Ofcom had anything on the table to which he replied that steps were being taken at a European level but that these were still a year or so from law.

NCCN 908 and porting differential issues.
Geoff gave an update from Ofcom that there was no justification to intervene in NCCN908 whilst it remained a contractual matter. Such an approach would be contrary to the findings of NCCN 500. Ofcom would however be meeting with Ofcom next week. An informal letter had already been sent querying any ‘accidental’ effects of NCCN 908. BT itself is looking at individual arrangements with operators. Sean Hartley (BT) confirmed that if an originator was offering discounts to its customers then BT would look at their discount levels and agree an appropriate rate.

Colin Scott (Thus) voiced concern about the Competition implications of BT looking at other operators’ pricing. Sean denied there was any competition threat and invited operators to talk to them. Geoff added that Ofcom would continue to seek ways to avoid any dispute.

The question of the need for a market review was raised. Geoff questioned whether NTS termination represented a viable market in its own right at a European level.

BT was asked if they would be able to offer pricing back to the 1st November should operators rates be validated after this date. Kath Embleton (BT) agreed to take this back to BT and to update the group.

AP Oct 08_01 – BT to report back to the group.

Discussion moved The issue of the porting differential in general was raised. Kath believed that this was an issue for the Porting Commercial group rather than the NTS Focus Group. It was confirmed that it had been discussed at the Porting Commercial Group, but that nothing had happened. Mike Barford (Tiscali) commented that it had been resolved at the mobile level, although Justin Hornby (C&W) pointed out that this model was currently subject to a dispute with Ofcom.

Agenda Item (7): CLI Integrity

Will set out the issues caused by poor CLI integrity and circulated a paper to the group ahead of the meeting. In particular the different national and international 0844 and 0871 rates were seen as being an issue. Will suggested that CLI could be altered to indicate the appropriate source of a call as billing integrity he claimed could not be guaranteed. Andrew saw the issue as being one particularly related to VOIP originated traffic.

Will raised concerns that BT was able to enact AIT on numbers where they considered the CLI to have been manipulated. Will called for the AIT clauses of the Standard Interconnect Agreement to be removed or to exclude all international calls where the money flow was working. Sean intimated that this was a commercial issue between Flextel and BT.

AP Oct08_02 – All members to report back at the next Focus Group on CLI integrity issues.

Date of Next Meeting:
The meeting next meeting will take place on 27th November 2008, commencing at 2:00pm, at Riverside House, London.

Summary of New and Outstanding Actions:
AP Oct 08_01 BT to report back to the group on whether they would offer pricing back to 1st November.
AP Oct 08_01 All members to report back at the next Focus Group on CLI integrity issues

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