Ofcom, the regulatory authority in the UK, has today published a "Consultation on a Draft Direction concerning ADSL Broadband Access Migration Services"; and a "Draft Determination to resolve a dispute between Tiscali, Thus and BT concerning ADSL Broadband Access Migration Services".

The key proposal put forward by Ofcom in these documents is to reduce the migration fee (e.g. from IPStream to Datastream and vice-versa) and the transfer fee (e.g. from one ISP to another) to £11 per line (based on BT's "efficiently incurred costs") for all identified scenarios, i.e. independently of whether the migration/transfer involves a software or a hardware intervention (currently, according to BT, 80% of migrations can be done with a software reconfiguration), and independently of whether it concerns the migration of a single line, or a migration project involving multiple lines or even the entire customer base of an ISP. Ofcom also puts forward a maximum downtime for the end-user of 30 minutes (within a specified time window of 24 hours), and a maximum time to achieve the migration which should not exceed the initial delivery time for a retail ADSL connection.

Even though Ofcom is only at the consultation stage (the deadline for responses is 1 June 2004), BT, the fixed incumbent, has today issued a press release stating that it will apply a migration fee of £11 as of 1 May 2004.

The Ofcom consultation document and the draft dispute resolution determination can be accessed by clicking here.

BT's press release can be accessed by clicking here.

Note: T-REGS is actively involved in the debates surrounding xDSL transfers and migration in many EU Member States, and we have addressed transfer/migration in recent news items on this website relating to Spain and Ireland. For a discussion of today's UK developments, and/or developments elsewhere in Europe, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it