Broadband, phone and pay TV firms must tell customers about their best deals Add to Your Pages
15 May 2019
New Ofcom rules will help people get the best package for their needs
Firms will have to alert customers when their deal is coming to an end
Providers must tell customers every year about the best deals they offer
Broadband, phone and TV customers must be told when their contract is coming to an end, and shown the best deals available, under new rules announced today by Ofcom.[1]
Ofcom wants customers to be able to take advantage of choice in broadband, phone and TV, and get the best deals for their needs. This could be by switching provider or agreeing a new deal with their existing one.
To help people do this, we are requiring broadband, TV, mobile and home phone companies to send their customers the information they need about their contract, when they need it, so they can choose the best package for them.[2] These protections are the latest in Ofcom's Fairness for customers programme.
20 million could benefitOur research shows that more than 20 million customers have passed their initial contract period. Many of these could be paying more than they need to.
People who bundle their landline and broadband services together pay, on average, around 20% more when they are out of contract'. This rises to 26% among customers who bundle their pay TV with these two services.
Around one in seven customers (14%) don't know whether they are still tied to their original deal; and around one in eight (12%) believe they are in contract', but don't know when this period ends.
New alerts for customersTherefore, Ofcom has stepped in to ensure fairness for customers, by forcing telecoms and pay TV companies to warn customers between 10 and 40 days before their contract comes to an end. These alerts will be sent by text, email or letter.[3] They will include:
the contract end date;
the price paid before this date;
any changes to the service and price paid at the end of this period;
information about any notice period required to terminate the contract; and
the best deals offered by their provider, including telling loyal customers what prices are available to new customers.
People who choose to stay with their provider without signing up to a new contract will be sent a reminder every year about their firm's best deals.
Lindsey Fussell, Ofcom's Consumer Group Director, said: We're making sure customers are treated fairly, by making companies give them the information they need, when they need it.
This will put power in the hands of millions of people who're paying more than necessary when they're no longer tied to a contract.
The changes will involve providers sending personalised and tailored information to millions of individual customers. To make sure they get this right, companies will have nine months to make the necessary changes to their systems and processes. Customers will start receiving the notifications from 15 February next year.
Fairness for customersOur Fairness for customers campaign has also recently introduced:
money back for broadband and landline customers when things go wrong;
clear, honest information for broadband shoppers before they commit to a contract about what speeds they will get; and
a major information campaign and website, Boost Your Broadband, to help people get faster broadband and save money.
On 1 July 2019, new rules will come into effect that will make it quicker and easier to switch mobile provider.
NOTES TO EDITORS1. Generally, where we talk about a contract' for example, the initial contract period', or being out of contract' or in contract' this refers to a customer's fixed commitment period. That is, the period of time over which a customer cannot cancel their services or switch to a different provider without paying a cancellation charge.
2. Business customers will also receive end-of-contract' notifications and best tariff information annually in a form suitable for them.
3. Here is an example of an end-of-contract notification sent by text message:
Add to Your Pages
Broadband, phone and pay TV firms must tell customers about their best deals
16/05/2019
| LINK: | https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__search/s/redirect?collection=web&url=https:... |
| See more stories from ofcom |
Europe Stories
22/02/2020
MIPDOC UNVEILS CONFERENCE PROGRAMME RICH WITH GLOBAL CONTENT FOR 2020
Paris, 21 February 2020 - MIPDoc today unveils a conference line up featuring prestigious exclusive content from around the world for its 2020 edition which wil...
22/02/2020
Invitation to Ericsson's Annual General Meeting 2020
The Nomination Committee proposes among other things: Unchanged composition of the Board of Directors (item 11 and item 12) Increase of the Board fees and the...
22/02/2020
Ericsson partners with industry leaders to help reduce traffic deaths in India
Ericsson has announced that it will join the Sweden India Transport Innovation and Safety Partnership, SITIS, to help improve traffic safety in India. Together ...
21/02/2020
Spotify Refreshes Popular Playlist New Music Friday with Global Rebrand
Whether you're a music fan or an artist, Fridays are about to get even better. Today, Spotify's highly influential New Music Friday playlist-a curated s...
21/02/2020
Eurovision Sport extends media rights partnership with Romania Ski Biathlon Federation
Eurovision Sport extends media rights partnership with Romania Ski Biathlon Fede...
21/02/2020
Open standards VS...
play SHARE VIDEO Justin Kennington, SDVoE, Josh Rush, Audinate, Henning Kaltheuner d&b audiotechnik and Martin Barbour, QSC, discuss whether open standards or...
21/02/2020
ISE 2020 Panel: How big an opportunity is...
play SHARE VIDEO Paul Milligan, editor Inavate EMEA, sits down with Mike Brooman (Vanti), Danny Rogers (AVI-SPL) and Kristian Glahn (COWI) to discuss all thin...
21/02/2020
ISE 2020 Panel: A global...
play SHARE VIDEO With mounting pressure to have a global footprint, integrators and consultants discuss the best approaches and pitfalls to look out for. Paul...
21/02/2020
ISE 2020 Panel: Do those with IT skills work...
play SHARE VIDEO Paul Milligan, editor Inavate EMEA chairs a panel debate at ISE look at IT and AV skills. Do those with IT skills work separately to those wi...
21/02/2020
ISE 2020 Panel: How can we improve the relationship between...
play SHARE VIDEO Paul Milligan chairs a panel discussing the current status quo of working relationships between consultants and integrators, what is causing ...
21/02/2020
ISE 2020 Panel: Is it ok for manufacturers to...
play SHARE VIDEO Paul Milligan, editor of InAVate, sits down at ISE 2020 to discuss the manufacturer-client direct sales. On the panel are Kevin Murphy of spe...
21/02/2020
ISE 2020 Panel: Will LED kill off LCD?
play SHARE VIDEO Paul Milligan asks the controversial question of the future of LCD in a world where LED demand is increasing. Carlos Morono, Anna Valley and ...
21/02/2020
ISE 2020 Panel: How...
play SHARE VIDEO Inavate EMEA editor Paul Milligan sits down with Frank Mehr from AVI-SPL and Ben Smit from AVEX to discuss AV and AI, and asks is the industr...
21/02/2020
ISE 2020 Panel: Should the AV sector be...
play SHARE VIDEO Peter Cliff from Holovis, Lee Dennison from White Light, Tyson Reed from One Media and Loek Wermenbol from First Impression join Inavate EMEA...
21/02/2020
ISE 2020 Panel: How big an opportunity is smart building...
play SHARE VIDEO Paul Milligan, editor Inavate EMEA, sits down with Mike Brooman (Vanti), Danny Rogers (AVI-SPL) and Kristian Glahn (COWI) to discuss all thin...
21/02/2020
Broadcast TV still accounts for almost a third of our video day
UK viewers are still watching 4 hours and 42 minutes of TV a day Jenny Priestley 4 hours ago UK viewers are still watching 4 hours and 42 minutes of TV a...
21/02/2020
4K 4Charity fun run upgrades to 8K
NAB Show charity run adds 8K (4.97-mile) course option Dan Meier 4 hours ago NAB Show charity run adds 8K (4.97-mile) course option target=_blank title...
21/02/2020
ProSieben.Sat1 CTO quits after less than a year
Nick Thexton will not be replaced Jenny Priestley 4 hours ago Nick Thexton will not be replaced target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linke...
21/02/2020
Green Hippo drives the visuals for Spotify's Who We Be Live
Green Hippo drives the visuals for Spotify's Who We Be Live posted: 20/02/2020 Creative Video Design drove the visuals for the show using Green Hippo&...
21/02/2020
Pixway Chooses disguise to Drive Massive LED Video Screen for Renault at 2019 Geneva International Motor Show
Pixway Chooses disguise to Drive Massive LED Video Screen for Renault at 2019 Ge...
21/02/2020
4K 4Charity Run Series Upscales at NAB Show with New 8K Course Option
4K 4Charity Run Series Upscales at NAB Show with New 8K Course Option posted: 21/02/2020 Registration begins today for the event, which aims to help incre...
21/02/2020
Robe ESPRITES for Vridilo Je Show in Croatia
Robe ESPRITES for Vridilo Je Show in Croatia posted: 21/02/2020 The Vridilo Je show was a massive high-profile tribute concert in Spilt Arena, Croatia, st...
21/02/2020
Robycam Global expands into South Korea
Robycam Global expands into South Korea posted: 21/02/2020 Movicom, international developer and manufacturer of leading-edge specialty camera systems for ...
21/02/2020
GB Labs FastNAS F-16 Nitro Installed at Kingdom Creative
GB Labs FastNAS F-16 Nitro Installed at Kingdom Creative posted: 20/02/2020 GB Labs, innovators of powerful and intelligent media storage solutions for th...
21/02/2020
Vari-Lite's VL2600 Wash is a bright idea for Marillion's orchestral spectacular
Vari-Lite's VL2600 Wash is a bright idea for Marillion's orchestral spec...
21/02/2020
KDDI and Ericsson achieve 5G cloud-native CI/CD software pipeline breakthrough
Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) and Japanese communications service provider KDDI have successfully demonstrated cloud-native CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous D...
21/02/2020
Fujifilm wins the internationally prestigious iF Design Awards for 10 products.
Fujifilm wins the internationally prestigious iF Design Awards for 10 products. FUJIFILM GFX100 mirrorless digital camera is awarded the highest ranked iF ...
20/02/2020
KOOL & THE GANG CELEBRATES GOOD TIMES WITH DPA MICROPHONES
FOH Ed Irons Relies on DPA to Capture the Band's Renowned Instrumentals. When Ed Irons came onto the scene as Kool & The Gang's Production Manager/FOH ...
20/02/2020
Sony's new Xperia L4 joins its entry series, bringing 21:9 viewing and capturing experiences in a sleek design
Sleek 21:9 Wide 6.2 display for more browsability and multi-tasking productivit...
20/02/2020
Banijay Rights Sells Hit Doc, Thomas Markle: My Story, To Latin America's OnDIRECTV
Banijay Rights, the leading distribution arm of Banijay Group, today announces t...
20/02/2020
Get to Know the Finalists for the 2020 Spotify Awards
The first ever Spotify Awards are just a few weeks away, and the countdown is on. The event, being held in Mexico City on March 5, is an award show based entire...
20/02/2020
Broadpeak Launches S4Streaming, a Groundbreaking Technology to Dramatically Improve Video QoE Through ABR Network Control
Broadpeak Launches S4Streaming, a Groundbreaking Technology to Dramatically Impr...
20/02/2020
Great client feedback - job well done!
Posted on 20 Feb 2020 It was great to get the thumbs up from locally based client, the Woodys Group following the launch of their new branding and website. Wh...
20/02/2020
MIPTV HONOURS JEREMY DARROCH AND SKY GROUP WITH INAUGURAL SDG AWARD
Paris, 20 February 2020 - MIPTV today announces Sky as the recipient of its newly created SDG Award which will be presented for the first time at MIPTV 2020. I...
20/02/2020
Clear-Com's FreeSpeak II Intercom Brings New North Church Together: Volunteer Involvement Grows With Clearer Communications
New North Church, located on the San Francisco Peninsula, received a much-needed...
20/02/2020
Arvato Systems Receives AWS DevOps Competency Status
Arvato Systems Receives AWS DevOps Competency Status Arvato Systems proves DevOps competence New AWS competence status for Arvato Systems Technical competen...
20/02/2020
ITV commissions high octane thriller, Trigger Point, starring Vicky McClure
ITV commissions high octane thriller, Trigger Point, starring Vicky McClure, written by Daniel Brierley and produced by Jed Mercurio's HTM Television Count...
20/02/2020
Nokia completes 5G core standalone network trial with Japan's KDDI
Nokia completes 5G core standalone network trial with Japan's KDDI Press Release Trial involved 3GPP Release 15 compliant, containerized standalone 5G c...
20/02/2020
Ooredoo Qatar to use Nokia AI-powered customer engagement solution towards monetizing 5G and providing improved digital experiences to users
Ooredoo Qatar to use Nokia AI-powered customer engagement solution towards monet...
20/02/2020
Kashmir reporter Ahmer Khan wins AFP Kate Webb Prize
Freelance reporter Ahmer Khan has won the 2019 Agence France-Presse Kate Webb prize for his coverage of the recent social and political upheaval in Indian Kashm...
20/02/2020
Optical Audio Productions tours DiGiCo SD12 with The Choir of
Working behind the scenes to help bring The Choir of Man to life is Gideon Cozens, the show's Front of House engineer on behalf of Optical Audio Productions...
20/02/2020
Video comprises 65 per cent of downstream mobile internet traffic
Video dominates mobile according to Sandvine Dan Meier 1 hour ago Video dominates mobile according to Sandvine target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn ...
20/02/2020
Eurosport extends Tour de France coverage
Two-year extension sees Eurosport retain exclusive rights across 38 European markets Dan Meier 2 hours ago Two-year extension sees Eurosport retain exclu...
20/02/2020
GRAVITY MEDIA WRAPS 2000TH REMI PRODUCTION IN NORTH AMERICA
GRAVITY MEDIA WRAPS 2000TH REMI PRODUCTION IN NORTH AMERICA posted: 20/02/2020 A Pac-12 basketball matchup between the USC Trojans and the Washington Stat...
20/02/2020
Asking AV: ISE Tech...
play SHARE VIDEO As another day of ISE 2020 comes to an end, Inavate discovers the show floor technology favourites from a group of AV experts....
20/02/2020
High energy battery...
Professor Min-Kyu Song and graduate student Panpan Dong test a prototype of a lithium metal battery. Researchers at the Washington State University have develo...
20/02/2020
ISE 2020 Panel: How significant could AI be...
play SHARE VIDEO Inavate EMEA editor Paul Milligan sits down with Frank Mehr from AVI-SPL and Ben Smit from AVEX to discuss AV and AI, and asks is the industr...
20/02/2020
ISE 2020 Panel: Should the AV sector be investing more...
play SHARE VIDEO Peter Cliff from Holovis, Lee Dennison from White Light, Tyson Reed from One Media and Loek Wermenbol from First Impression join Inavate EMEA...
20/02/2020
IK go for the guitarists
Guitar tech the focus again at NAMM show, together with affordable I/O and studio modelling IKs Axe I/O Solo interface. IK Multimedias focus on guitarists ...
