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Unmetered access gets Oftel's backing

Give that watchdog a bone

Oftel has jumped off the fence and said it is in favour of unmetered access for heavy users of the Internet in Britain. This is the first time the telecomms watchdog has openly supported unmetered access. A spokesman for Oftel said: "We've never been against it [unmetered access]… this is the first time we've said we're in favour of it." It may only be a subtle shift, but for those campaigning for cheaper Net access it could prove to be significant. In a document issued by Oftel at its industry-only Internet Forum yesterday, the regulator said it was even prepared to help negotiate a way forward. "Operators are free to introduce new retail tariff structures, but in some circumstances this may be difficult with the current structure of interconnect charges," the document said. "If this is of concern, it is up to operators to discuss their needs 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." Oftel went on to say that it hoped any resolution to the problem would be overcome quickly so that the development of ecommerce in Britain is not stifled because of "inappropriate tariff structures for Internet access". Unfortunately for BT, Oftel's new position has made the telco even more isolated. As the dominant telco in Britain, BT faces even greater pressure to introduce new tariffs from those groups calling for the introduction of unmetered access. At yesterday's forum BT failed to convince an audience of ISPs that its new planned tariff -- announced last week -- would allow providers to introduce unmetered access. ®

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