Ofcom has just launched a consultation on banning automatically renewing telephone service contracts:

News release:
http://media.ofcom.org.uk/2011/03/03/removing-barriers-to-switching-proposals-to-end-rollover-contracts/%20?utm_source=updates&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=AutoRenewContractsNews

Consultation document:
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/arcs/?utm_source=updates&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=AutoRenewContracts

This is something I have never liked since BT first introduced it.

I understand the reason for minimum term contracts in cases where providers need to ensure they claim back costs for so-called things they may have claimed were free like wireless routers, etc and maybe even to reclaim back their connection charges where these were offered for free.

But I thought it was totally unfair that BT were allowed to get away with this so far.  BT have no reason to keep customers locked into rolling 12month contracts after the first year except to prevent us from moving away to other cheaper alternative providers.

I hope Ofcon actually do enforce this rather than their usual light-touch voluntary system whereby they hope OCPs sign up and then continue to go by the voluntary rules.

bbb_uk wrote on Mar 3^rd, 2011 at 6:12pm:

But I thought it was totally unfair that BT were allowed to get away with this so far.  BT have no reason to keep customers locked into rolling 12month contracts after the first year except to prevent us from moving away to other cheaper alternative providers.

I think that Ofcom should also ban whole-minute billing, where the duration of a call is rounded up to the next whole minute for the purposes of charging callers.