ITC Raps Availability Of BT SurfTime

The limitations of unlimited internet access services have again resurfaced, this time regarding BT’s SurfTime package. The Independent Television Commission (ITC) has this month upheld a number of complaints about the service.

Twenty-nine customers complained to the regulatory body that the internet calls package was misleading. SurfTime promised “unlimited internet calls every evening and weekend for just £5.99 a month” when it launched earlier this year (see BT Responds To Internet Pricing War) in response to similar packages from its competitors.

Their complaints surrounded the availability, the cost and the “unlimited” nature of the service. The ITC upheld complaints regarding availability as it said that, although BT had warned that the service was “subject to availability”, this had been as low as 24% in some television regions.

It did not uphold complaints regarding misleading information about the cost of the package, or about its unlimited nature, despite the fact that the company had cut off some connections after 2 hours use in order to “maintain overall quality of service”.

Unlimited packages have so far failed to achieve economic viability in most cases and some have been forced to close down or restrict their services because of high usage levels. BT continues to hold a monopoly over the provision of flat-rate circuits needed to make unlimited packages viable (see AltaVista Blames BT For Stalling On Free Internet Service).

ITC: 020 7306 7743