In a blog post on its website (see here), the company says that the plans to force broadband suppliers to advertise costs that include the line rental will put smaller resellers at a disadvantage.
Darren Farnden, Head of Marketing at the company, states: “Our main concern and disappointment is that once again the ASA/Ofcom strive to apply ‘one size fits all’ type proposals to solve a market problem that has arguably been caused by the larger mainstream providers. Many smaller ISPs in the UK broadband channel provide the broadband service without requiring their customers to take line rental in the same package.”
He notes that in some cases, consumers may want to buy line rental and broadband from different suppliers. The new rules suggest that ISPs may be forced to offer both and if this is the case, it will restrict customer choice.
The company also highlights that in its joint study of the market, the ASA and Ofcom have based their findings on views taken from just 300 consumers, when there are 23.7 million fixed broadband lines in use in the UK today.