BT under fire over mobile phone service pricing errors

British Telecom yesterday faced two adverse rulings from Don Cruickshank, the telecoms regulator, over unfair pricing of Cellnet mobile services and errors in price lists.

Last night Mr Cruickshank issued the first ever order against Cellnet, the UK's second largest mobile network, which is 60 per cent owned by BT. It followed complaints that Cellnet's wholesale tariffs offered to retailers gave bigger airtime service providers unfair discounts.

Though Cellnet approached Oftel, the watchdog, with revised tariffs, Mr Cruickshank said the jury was still out on the packages and ordered the network to "bring discrimination to a halt."

In a separate ruling, BT's competitors were given the legal right to sue the company yesterday by Oftel, in a dispute over price lists. Mr Cruickshank yesterday issued a final order compelling BT to publish accurate and comprehensive lists of its retail and wholesale prices, after an investigation found "clear breaches" of BT's licence obligations.