Ofcom, the UK’s digital regulator, has said that the country’s broadband providers have missed the deadline for implementing the One Touch Switch (OTS) process. The OTS process was announced a year and a half ago and would have allowed broadband switching to be quicker and easier for residential customers.
Ofcom points out that customers with providers on the Openreach network, such as BT, Sky, and TalkTalk, can switch easily between providers. It wanted One Touch Switch so that customers benefited from simple switching to and from providers outside of the Openreach network too.
Commenting on the failure to implement OTS, Cristina Luna-Esteban, Ofcom’s Director of Telecoms Consumer Protection, said:
“Industry has had plenty of warning, plenty of time and plenty of support to get this done. It’s extremely disappointing and frustrating, and providers have let their customers down.
We take compliance with our rules very seriously, and have launched enforcement action to make sure companies get this up and running as quickly as possible.”
Ofcom says it has been pushing providers to implement OTS until now but it doesn’t seem to have yielded results. Disappointingly, Ofcom says it “will continue to work with industry to make sure the new switching process is delivered as soon as possible.” It doesn’t look like Ofcom will be taking punitive measures for the lacklustre responses of providers.
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