By Ben King, 26 September 2001 08:32
NEWS BT and Vodafone still have too much power in the mobile market, says Oftel, but the regulator has decided against forcing the two to cut prices. Though Orange is now the UK's largest network in terms of active subscribers, Oftel has judged that BT and Vodafone still have too much power in the market. They have been pricing their calls "at levels higher than would be seen in a truly competitive market," a review published today has concluded. However, Oftel has judged that it would be better to let increasing competition take its course, rather than add extra regulation to the market. In fact, it has removed restrictions obliging BT Cellnet and Vodafone to sell airtime on their networks to independent service providers. However, it has left existing price controls on calls to mobiles in place, which it claims will save consumers £800m per year. The regulator nonetheless called on operators to provide greater clarity to customers, who currently face a bamboozling array of tariffs and call plans that make it very difficult to choose the cheapest service. This light regulatory touch will please investors in the mobile operators, who feared that Oftel was about to introduce price controls. Oftel also called for operators to stop the practice of "locking" handsets to a single network - Which makes it difficult to use a handset bought from one network when switching to another. The operators have been asked to "join immediate discussions" with a view to ending this practice.
In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.
Log in or create your silicon.com account below