http://www.ofcom.org.uk/telecoms/groups/nts_focus/notes/nts_050309

NTS Focus Group – 5th March 2009 – 2.00 pm Ofcom

Agenda item (1) - Introductions

Attendance:

Mike Barford      Tiscali
Catherine Gerosa      Invomo
Sarah Godfrey      4D Interactive
Will Goodall      Flextel
Sean Hartley      BT
Clive Hillier      Ofcom
Justin Hornby      C&W (Chair)
Andy Martin      IV Response
Steve McGeary      Via-Vox
Laurent Pariat      C&W
Sandra Reid      VirginMedia
By telephone:
Lesa Green      Kcom
John Kelly      Gamma Telecom
Bart van Besien      J2 Global
John Hudson      Verizon
Peter Courtenay      Teledesign
Warren Berdo      SkyCom
Apologies:
Geoff Brighton      Ofcom

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

Review of Regulation of Premium Rate Services

Clive Hillier (Ofcom) gave an update that publication is now expected to be in April.
General Condition 14 Enforcement Programme

Clive advised that this enforcement programme was approaching completion from a compliance perspective. It was expected that the programme would be closed in the next couple of weeks and that an update note would be published on the compliance phase of the work.

Agenda Item (3): 0870 Statement and Dispute

Publication of the statement and dispute is expected to be later this month. Clive advised that currently most projects within Ofcom were taking longer due to the increased level of review now undertaken.

Agenda Item (4): 0871 Statement

The final policy statement relating to 0871 was published on 5th February: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/087prs/087statement/. This means that PhonepayPlus formally takes over regulation of the 0871 number range from 1st August 2009. Clive advised the group that the contact at Phonepay Plus responsible for implementation is Alex Littlemore (alittlemore@phonepayplus.org.uk tel:02079407413).

PhonepayPlus will be holding two stakeholder events on 17th (Manchester) and 24th (London) March. There will also be fortnightly sessions up until 14th April and a user-friendly guide is due to be published.

Clive was asked to clarify the relationship between Ofcom and PhonepayPlus. He explained that PhonepayPlus is an agency of Ofcom and that Peter Phillips sits of the PhonepayPlus board to represent Ofcom. Lesa Green added that input could be fed through the Industry Liaison Panel (ILP).

Will Goodall and Warren Berdo called for harmonization in regulation and cited the recent fines imposed upon 070 operators and experiences of a lack of ownership in responsibility for addressing CLI Spoofing as examples where further clarification is required. There was some concern in relation to 070 that inter-company payments were being regarded as revenue share in cases where the End-User had not received a payment. In these cases the definition of Network Operator, Service Provider and Information Provider was felt to be woolly particularly where PhonepayPlus were operating a follow the money approach.

Catherine Gerosa highlighted concerns with the recent letter from PhonepayPlus and some of the errors that it contained. Lesa Green agreed that the letter appeared to be poorly drafted. Concern centred on some of the timescales given in the letter, the tone and the requirement for contractual amendments. Only two companies present also indicated that they had yet to receive any form of correspondence.

Will Goodall expressed concern at the shift in regulatory position caused by the court action taken in relation to 070 and that it caused a degree of uncertainty in interpretation of the regulations.

Warren Berdo questioned whether PhonepayPlus are adequately staffed in their compliance team citing experiences of waiting 6-9 weeks for answers to questions. A sentiment echoed by Sarah Godfrey. Lesa Green claimed that her experience had been the opposite and that the compliance team were very helpful.

AP Mar09_01: Clive Hillier to flag the question of PhonepayPlus resources to Ann Hoitink and Alex Littlemore.

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Agenda Item (5): NCCN908 & Porting Differential

Clive reported that Ofcom had held several discussions with Communications Providers on the issue of NCCN 908 and that it appeared that a dispute was likely.

Laurent Pariat asked BT about progress on call trapping developments. Sean Hartley reported that BT was still investigating the feasibility of passing the volume of calls to the IN. Kath Embleton also cited concerns about where BT draws the line in terms of offering this industry to companies other than C&W and the need for similar measures for geographic calls.

Mike Barford suggested that the topic needed a separate entry on the agenda rather than being captured under NCCN908.

AP Mar09_02: Sean Hartley to report back on BT progress.

Agenda Item (6): NCCN928

Laurent queried the intent of the original NCCN 928 which had been issued and then revised by BT. Sean and Cath confessed they were unaware of the original notification.

Agenda Item (7): AOB

Clive drew the groups attention to work the Competition Finance team were commencing relating to the Retail Uplift Charge Control. The intention is for a consultation with a final Statement in September 09.

Laurent questioned whether Ofcom checked compliance with the current retail uplift, particularly in relation to 0800. Clive advised that this was looked after by Craig Lonies team.

Date of Next Meeting:

The meeting next meeting will take place on 30th April 2009, commencing at 2:00pm, at Riverside House, London.

30 April - Room 1.03
25 June - Room 1.04
03 September - Room 1.03
29 October - Room 1.03
10 December - Room 1.03
Summary of New and Outstanding Actions:

AP Mar09_01: Clive Hillier to flag the question of PhonepayPlus resources to Ann Hoitink and Alex Littlemore.

AP Mar09_02: Sean Hartley to report back on BT progress.

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