Clause 86 - Conditions about carrier selection
Communications Bill
8:55 am
Mr John Whittingdale (Maldon and East Chelmsford, Conservative)
My hon. Friend the Member for Blaby (Mr. Robathan) has ably put the case for the amendment and I do not want to repeat what he said, but carrier pre-selection is important. The Committee has already spent some time looking for ways in which to increase competition for domestic telecommunications customers. There may be various other means, but carrier pre-selection is clearly a way in which customers are facilitated with greater choice. For a long time, one of the principal complaints from alternative providers was that carrier pre-selection was not available.
All those with experience of competition or choice in telecommunications will remember having to punch in a different number every time they dialled to access the network of the alternative operator. Some operators supply a box to plug into the wall. The technology to make that unnecessary has been available for a considerable time, if only the main provider would agree to pre-selection, but there has been a certain amount of foot dragging. Less than a year ago, one of the main alternative providers was complaining to me about the failure to make any progress in obtaining pre-selection. Thankfully, we now have it—because of the efforts of Ofcom and, it appears, the European Commission. I hope that that will give competition in the market a real boost.
Amendment No. 85 seeks to create a level playing field. Now that we have obtained carrier pre-selection, the consumer makes one call to BT to say that in future he wants all his calls to be routed through a particular operator. He does not need to take any further actions or decisions. However, it seems fair that a facility should exist whereby, in certain instances, he can go back to the main operator. The amendment would ensure that that was possible. It would also ensure parity of treatment and clear competition among all the providers—even if one is dominant and the others are smaller and have to use BT's network.