Oftel, the telecoms watchdog, undertook an investigation into BT following a complaint by Cable & Wireless, later supported by Energis.
The complaint alleged that BT was continuing to charge for certain call routing and call management systems that were needed when the unmetered access service was first set up, but are now no longer necessary.
Following the investigation David Edmonds, Director General of Telecommunications, yesterday confirmed that "BT's network can now process internet call traffic without these additional measures."
As a result, BT's wholesale charge will be reduced by 17% and backdated to June 2002, the date from when these additional measures were not needed.
There has also been a reduction to BT's wholesale unmetered internet access charges for the period 1st August 2001 to 31st May 2002 of around 6%, the reason being that during that time it was not necessary to apply certain measures uniformly across all of BT's local exchanges.
Edmonds stated:
"The action taken today ensures that BT continue to recoup the cost of providing wholesale unmetered internet access, and that UK consumers continue to benefit from one of the most competitive dial-up internet markets in the world."
He added, "I hope that operators pass these savings onto their customers."
It appears however, that any savings will be minimal. According to ZDNet UK News, even if the entire saving was passed on to the public it would only amount to around 50 pence per month for each customer.
