Response to Ofcom decision on BT - Panel welcomes announcement but wants tangible measures of results
23 June 2005
The Panel welcomed today's announcement from Ofcom as a significant step forward for consumers.
This approach, based on real equality of access, has the potential to deliver better and cheaper products and services in the market place. But the devil will be in the detail.
The Panel will examine closely Ofcom's 30 June 2005 statement on BT undertakings for evidence that tangible measures will be applied to the market. Implementation will be the key. It is vital that this leads to concrete and positive results for all consumers, including those with least power in the market place.
This year the Ofcom Consumer Panel published the UK's largest piece of consumer research to date into what concerns consumers have in the communications market and what their understanding of it is. The research highlighted much confusion amongst consumers about the benefits of new technologies and difficulty in comparing tariffs and services.