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Agenda Item (6): Pricing transparency on mobile to NGN calls (Warren Berdo Skycom)

Warren Berdo outlined an issue he believed was significant concerning pricing transparency for NTS calls from mobile phones.

Warren said he had been discussing the matter with John OKeith at Ofcom and had prepared a website to track NTS prices on the 5 major mobile networks.

It was made clear that Ofcom hadnt endorsed the website but may be look into publishing the link on the Ofcom website. New Action: Oct_09/02: Clive Hillier to confirm the status of the SkyCom mobile pricing website within Ofcom.

Warren said that in all cases it took a minimum of 5 clicks to find the pricing and there was evidence to suggest that it was moved around frequently making it very inaccessible. When pricing tables were found they were often very complicated with many notes. Warren said he believed that this deterred consumers from making calls to NTS numbers as around 40% of all minutes originate on mobile networks, yet only 24% of NTS calls originate in this way.

Geoff Brighton said that Ofcom looked for the mobile providers to comply with General Conditions (GC10 and 14 were cited as relevant). Warren asked if Ofcom would considering taking action to ensure that 5 main mobile networks were compliant and pricing was easy to find as this would cover 99% of users.

Stephen Ornadel from T-Mobile said that perusing the 5 mobile networks wasnt going to help as many virtual providers and resellers also sell mobile origination (eg. Virgin). He said while he was not T-Mobiles retail pricing expert he said that T-Mobile always strived to make pricing transparent and if customers visited www.t-mobile.co.uk/whatitcosts they would be able to obtain accurate tariff information. He said that it was a commercial website that provided product information and if pricing was complicated then it was because of the many product options available (pre & post pay etc). Stephen said that in the case of 0800 that many were free to caller and in cases where a charge was levied a pre call announcement was played to ensure the caller know the tariff before continuing with the call.

A debate then ensued over the issue with a number of points being made. Warren Berdo said that he believed that transparency needs to be higher if the price was out of kilter with expected pricing, ie. where the pricing deferential was greater for NTS traffic than for geographic calls between mobile and fixed networks.

Andy Martin said in his view the PRS Scope review sought to fix the issue of transparency on calls to PRS numbers which were obviously more expensive, but have much lower volumes. General NTS numbers while cheaper, have a higher volume of calls and also require a fix.

Colin Scott said it was clear that the debate could go on for sometime and that it was useful to have representatives from mobile operators present at the NTS Focus Group. Colin said the issue would be put on the agenda for the next meeting.

Action- Oct_09/03: Justin Hornby to put NTS mobile pricing transparency on the agenda for the December meeting.

Agenda Item (7): VAT Proposal to revert to assumed DLE call origination segment for non-BT originated minutes

Colin Scott said that Cable & Wireless were planning to change the assumed call origination segment for non-BT originated calls that transit the BT network to Cable&Wireless NTS numbers.

Laurent Pariat (Cable&Wireless) said this would result in pricing for access to Cable&Wireless NTS numbers in the BT Carrier Price List section 1.02 and 1.12 changing to reflect the move to assumed DLE origination for non-BT originated traffic. The price of C&W NTS minutes accessed via BT would increase by a modest amount equal to the amount of the local to tandem conveyance charge (LTC currently 0.1156ppm Daytime, 0.0529ppm Evening & 0.0417ppm Weekend).

Laurent said that discussions with BT were ongoing and a SoR seeking to make the change was being pursued. The target rate for introducing the change is the 1st of January 2010.

Andy Martin asked why the change was happening. Colin Scott said that following the conclusions of Ofcoms Wholesale Narrowband review a single call switching stage was identified.

CP wishing more information should contact Justin Hornby or Laurent Pariat.
Agenda Item (8): Review of remaining outstanding actions

No outstanding Actions were left over from the last NTS FG.
Agenda Item (9): Meeting Frequency 2010

Colin Scott asked those present how often they would like to meet in 2010. Andy Martin said there was a case to increase the frequency of meetings as a result of the number of live issues and Ofcoms forthcoming NTS Review. The current 6 meetings a year cycle was insufficient and that a meeting ever six weeks or every month may be justified.

Action- Oct_09/04: Justin Hornby to propose new meeting date for 2010 at the next FG.

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