Hi Marko
You are illegally "tied" to KC as KC make the provision of a telephone line conditional on you accepting their unlimited local phone call services which is illegal under UK Competition Legislation and Ofcom oversight but Ofcom WILL NOT do anything about this even though the practice of "tying" is illegal and anti competative.
Its not "bundling" its classified as "tying" - a distinct difference.
There is no justification for the KCOM tying of lines with local calls and OFCOM MUST INVESTIGATE and force KCOM to provide the option for a "metered" local calls service to Hull residents and businesses as was the case before the new Talk plans were introduced in the Autumn of 2005.
If you had the option this would then be classified as a "bundle"
KC now tie every domestic and business line in Hull that has a choice of calls provider apart from those where the business customer can commit to a call spend in excess of £30,000 per annum WITH KC !!! such as KUHCC and the bigger spending Hull businesses where they get the choice to pay for local calls on either a tied or metered "pay as you go" basis - at 5.5p untimed !!!!! ON A PER LINE BASIS !!!! - Discrimenation possibly !!!! - again illegal under their Ofcom oversight.
However, it was Ofcom that permitted KCOM to apopt "tied" services under their watch so no investigation will be forthcoming. additionally, the potential loss of Revenue to KCOM and implications on KCOM would be significant if they were found to be in breach.
I'll leave you to you draw your own conclusions to this and the reasons for the lack of telecommunications choice in the Hull area !!!
have a look at:
http://www.ictregulationtoolkit.org/en/Section.1721.htmlFrom an EU Competition Expert - I have several other responses from other experts ALL of which state that what KCOM is doing is illegal.
"I checked and we don't act for Kingston so you can refer to me if you want.
The charges would appear to constitute illegal tying or bundling contrary to the Chapter II prohibition (s18) Competition Act 1998, make the provision of one service (provision of phone line) conditional on the provision of another product/service (extra phone minutes at a fixed charge), which the customer may not want, and the tying of which cannot be objectively justified. Where the supplier is dominant this is an abuse of a dominant position. It's hard to see how this would be justified. If it had been
previously discussed and cleared with Ofcom eg that Kingston wished to increase charges and regulator said they couldn't unless some quid pro quo, and this was the deal, it would be good to know. In the absence of any such deal, I think Kingston would struggle. A letter pointing this out to Kingston, and possibly saying the charge is in your view illegal as it contravenes CA 1998 would be the right course. Contact with Ofcom as you outline may also be desirable".
Its good see people finally waking up to the problem !!!
Ofcom have a legal responsibility to Act.
This is one of the major reasons for the lack of telecommunications choice in the Hull area.
PN
