BT's wholesale DSL products: terms and conditions

No. 24/01/2002

The Director General of Telecommunications has investigated under the Competition Act 1998 terms and conditions (including a lack of Service Level Agreements and Service Level Guarantees), and levels of service, in respect of BT's wholesale xDSL contract. The Director was concerned that the contract terms and conditions and BT's levels of service were so unreasonable as to amount to an abuse of a dominant position. The Director suspected that this could have materially anti-competitive effects.

The Director has now completed his investigation. The Director has concluded that in principle, the contract terms and conditions (including the lack of conditions providing for SLAs/SLGs) and BT's levels of service are capable of being considered to be so unreasonable as to amount to an abuse of a dominant position. However, there is insufficient evidence of a link between the terms and conditions and an effect on competition. In addition, there is insufficient evidence to show that the level of service provided by BT amounts to an abuse of a dominant position.

In these circumstances, the Director does not, therefore, consider that BT's xDSL wholesale contract terms and conditions, and BT's levels of service, constitute an infringement of the Act.

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