Lobby groups and internet service providers were claiming a partial victory as UK telecoms regulator Oftel called on British Telecommunications Plc to introduce an unmetered internet access tariff for the first time. The watchdog said: The structure of telecoms tariffs penalizes those who use the internet a lot by making them pay total charges which are in excess of the total costs of providing service to them…For heavy internet users, a more appropriate tariff structure would be one that had unmetered usage.
The increasingly influential Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications (CUT) described the report as very encouraging, we are delighted that our solution to the problem is now Oftel policy. Similarly, AOL UK, a corporate sponsor of CUT, welcomed the move.
But Oftel pointed that its hands are tied until somebody complains about BT standing in the way of an unmetered tariff. It said it was up to ISPs to discuss it with BT. If negotiations fail, and Oftel considers the request to be reasonable, Oftel can intervene and determine a tariff on the basis of the new tariff structure, said the watchdog. AOL UK is known to be in negotiations with BT to buy a sizeable batch of freephone minutes at discount in order to offer unmetered access. If the ISP reckons BT is being obstructive, it finds itself in a position to do something about it, under Oftel’s new policy.
BT tried to soften the impact of Oftel’s decision with an announcement of a large investment in its IP infrastructure and did not comment on Oftel’s report. The report came after a meeting Tuesday between the regulator, BT, AOL, UUNet Inc, CUT, and a number of other ISPs, at which BT’s recent tariff proposals (which it said could allow an ISP to go unmetered) met universal crticism.
