British telecoms operator BT is facing a claim for almost 600 million pounds ($800 million) lodged by a consumer campaign group, which says the company failed to compensate fixed-line customers, many of them elderly, for overcharging. More about BT’s competition over fixed-line prices is below. bt compesation over fixed-line prices

The group, Collective Action on Land Lines (CALL), says the former monopoly failed to make up for increasing prices for customers over several years, even though costs for providing the service were falling, Reuters reports.

In 2017, telecoms regulator Ofcom raised concerns about the price BT had charged landline-only customers, and the company agreed to reduce its landline prices by 7 pounds a month.

However, CALL said BT had not properly addressed past overcharging. Its 589 million-pound claim, filed with the Competition Appeal Tribunal, sought payments of up to 500 pounds for each of 2.3 million BT customers.

The group said it was also seeking compensation for customers who took both a broadband service and a BT landline, but not as a package, and were excluded from BT’s 2017 price cut.

BT said it strongly disagreed with the claim. “We take our responsibilities to older and more vulnerable customers very seriously and will defend ourselves against any claim that suggests otherwise,” it said in a statement. bt compesation over fixed-line prices

The claim went back as far as 2015, the earliest starting point under legal rules, CALL said.

BT fined for breaking Ofcom rules in Northern Ireland tender

Ofcom has fined BT £6.3m in December 2020, after its network division failed to give a rival company the same information as BT’s own bid team during the tender for a public sector telecoms contract in Northern Ireland in 2017/18.

The penalty is the result of an investigation into a complaint made to Ofcom by telecoms company Eir. The complaint related to BT’s conduct during the tender for a high-value contract to provide essential telecom services to public sector organisations in Northern Ireland.

Under Ofcom rules, BT’s network arm must treat all its wholesale customers equally. Most telecoms companies – including BT’s own customer-facing business – rely on access to BT’s network to provide their services.

Our rules are designed to address competition problems that might otherwise arise from BT’s ‘significant market power’ and to ensure a level playing field, on which other providers can compete with BT, Ofcom said.

Between April 2017 and March 2018, BT and Eir both bid for the ‘Northern Ireland Public Sector Shared Network’ (NIPSSN) contract. This was to provide shared data transfer services and calls to over 150 public sector organisations in Northern Ireland across 2000 sites, including schools, the police, Government departments, local councils and other public bodies.

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