Freeserve alleged that BT was behaving anti-competitively by using its 'blue bill' – the standard telephone bill sent to BT's 18.5 million residential customers – and its '150' customer service line to market its BT Broadband product and by offering joint telephony and internet billing.
Oftel carried out a detailed investigation into Freeserve's concerns but found that BT's current use of its blue bill and 150 customer line did not give it an unfair advantage over competitors such as Freeserve.
Oftel found that the number of consumers taking BT Broadband as a result of marketing conducted over the 150 service line was sufficiently low not to have a material adverse effect on competition.
As for the use of the blue bill as a marketing and advertising channel for BT Broadband, Oftel found that BT includes a copy of BTUpdate with the blue bill of all customers regardless of their likely interest in broadband. This, says Oftel, gives rise to a relatively high cost per broadband customer gained by this route.
The regulator reckons that competitors can more specifically target likely broadband users by using direct marketing at a similar or lower cost.
David Edmonds, Director General of Telecommunications said on Friday:
"Oftel looked at each of the issues raised by Freeserve, and considered them in detail. In this instance we have concluded that BT's marketing activity using the 'blue bill' and '150' customer service line does not prevent Freeserve competing on a fair basis."
