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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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