...

Agenda Item (6): VAT Announcement

Sean Hartley said that BT Retail were passing the recently announced cut in VAT through to consumers. BT were concerned this might not be fully consistent with the numbering plan as they were not pricing according to the rates as set by the terminating operators in relation to the 0844 range which are specified with VAT included. BT has approached the Ofcom Numbering team for guidance.

Geoff and Clive agreed to take the issue away and to discuss with the Numbering team and in particular to look at the possibility of implementing price points excluding VAT.

AP Nov8_02: Geoff Brighton to raise Numbering Plan issue internally.

AP Nov8_03: BTRetail to confirm the outcome of their discussions with the Ofcom Numbering team and how the changes are to be applied.

Agenda Item (7): CLI Integrity

At the last Focus Group operators were asked to report back on the level of CLI integrity issues they were experiencing. Andy Martin saw it as a particular issue numbering in the 100’s a month, originating largely from VOIP operators. If these numbers are presented as being international calls it has significant billing implications, the main issuing being fraud such as PBX attacks.

Concern was voiced at how hard this type of activity is to eliminate from a network as the CLI can be altered at each step of the call. Dirmuid Jennings saw it as being a result of slack controls on the way CLIs are issued in the first place. Laurent Pariat saw the issue more as being a direct result of BT’s different UK and international rates for 0844 and 0871 as it is easy to spoof a CLI. Will Goodall also saw blank CLIs as a similar issue, particularly from overseas.

Geoff Brighton asked how this could be taken forward? Will expressed the need for a reliable routing indicator and asked whether there was something in the C7 signalling that could be used. Unless a flag was added to calls made from abroad the situation could get worse. NICC are writing NGN interconnect standards, is there anything that could be used from this work?

AP Nov8_04: Justin Hornby to raise the issue with NICC

Laurent Pariat asked if it was legitimate for BT to have different 0844/71 tariffs for internationally originated traffic. There is a clear potential for fraud and he questioned the legitimacy of such an offering that is not based on a domestic offering. Laurent also highlighted the disadvantage for any operator not using BT for call termination.

Sean Hartley responded that rates on 070 are also differentiated and that it has not been a problem before. Although he did acknowledge that traffic levels were much lower on 070. He also pointed out that international call termination would be through BT Global Services.

Will Goodall asked if BT’s End to End connectivity obligations applied to BT Group as a whole. Kath Embleton stressed that there were no regulatory obligations on BT and Clive Hillier said the thought that BT’s End to End Connectivity obligation would not apply to calls originated by foreign carriers.

Sean Hartley indicated that BT had wanted to avoid the complexity of numerous rates and to keep a simple single rate. Laurent acknowledged that but said he would have expected a rate closer to the current 0844 offering and not drastically lower. With 0870 the rates are the same and therefore similar problems are not occurring.

Date of Next Meeting:

The meeting next meeting will take place on 22nd January 2008, commencing at 2:00pm, at Riverside House, London. The periodicity of meetings for 2009 has been extended to eight weeks with the exception of September in order to avoid the holiday period. Due to a smaller room capacity is now 18.



22 January - Room 1.03

03 March at 1:30 as the room (1.09) is only free until 3pm.

30 April - Room 1.03

25 June - Room 1.04

03 September - Room 1.03

29 October - Room 1.03

10 December - Room 1.03

Summary of New and Outstanding Actions:
AP Nov 08_01 Lesa Green to raise the issue at the next Porting Commercial Group Meeting.
AP Nov 08_01 Geoff Brighton to raise Numbering Plan issue internally.
AP Nov 08_03 BTRetail to confirm the outcome of their discussions with the Ofcom Numbering team and how the changes are to be applied.
AP Nov 08_04 AP Nov8_04: Justin Hornby to raise the issue with NICC.

[end]