PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
BRITISH TELECOM (19 February 1993)

That this House notes the continued monopoly position of British Telecom as far as domestic telephone services are concerned and therefore believes that OFTEL, as the regulator of this service, should take appropriate action to ensure that British Telecom offers a fair and reasonable contract to its customers; in particular notes that, when a fire at the Woodhouse telephone exchange in Sheffield on Sunday 25th October 1992 caused the suspension of the telephone service for thousands of customers in the Sheffield, Attercliffe and Rother Valley constituencies, British Telecom refused to pay compensation under their contract on the basis that they were not responsible for the incident which led to services being terminated; and believes that this exercise of monopoly power is an abuse by British Telecom which OFTEL should take all appropriate steps to end.

Sponsored by:
Mr Clive Betts (Labour)