Ofcom has fined BT £6.3 million after its network division failed to give Eir, a rival company, the same information as BT’s own bid team during the tender for a public sector telecoms contract in Northern Ireland in 2017-18.
Ofcom revealed that the penalty is the result of an investigation into a complaint made to Ofcom by telecoms company Eir. The complaint related to BT’s conduct during the tender for a big contract to provide essential telecoms services to public sector organisations in Northern Ireland.

Under Ofcom rules, BT’s network arm must treat all its wholesale customers equally. Most telecoms companies – including BT’s own customer-facing business – rely on access to BT’s network to provide their services.

Our rules are designed to address competition problems that might otherwise arise from BT’s ‘significant market power’ and to ensure a level playing field, on which other providers can compete with BT.

Between April 2017 and March 2018, BT and Eir both bid for the ‘Northern Ireland public sector shared network’ contract. This was to provide shared data transfer services and calls to over 150 public sector organisations in Northern Ireland across 2000 sites, including schools, the police, Government departments, local councils and other public bodies.

Ofcom said its investigation found that BT’s network arm broke our rules during this tender process, by failing to provide Eir with the same information about one of its wholesale products as it did to BT’s bid team.

Between April 2017 and March 2018, BT and Eir both bid for the Northern Ireland public sector shared network (NIPSSN) contract. This was to provide shared data transfer services and calls to over 150 public sector organisations in Northern Ireland across 2000 sites, including schools, the police, Government departments, local councils and other public bodies.

The part of BT’s network arm that provided support to Eir’s bid sat within BT Northern Ireland Networks (BTNIN). Staff from both Openreach and BTNIN provided support to BT’s bid. In June 2018, BT’s bid team won the contract.

What Ofcom’s investigation found

One of the possible solutions that could be used by the bidders for the contract was BT’s Fibre to the Premises on Demand (FOD) product. Our investigation has found that BT’s network arm broke our rules during this tender process, by failing to provide Eir with the same information about this FOD product – including its suitability and cost for delivering the relevant services – as it did to BT’s bid team.

BT’s network arm provided a message to Eir that FOD was not a suitable solution for its bid and that it had delivery limitations. In contrast, the BT bid team was provided information that suggested FOD was suitable for major multi-site network upgrade projects (such as NIPSSN) and could be delivered at such a scale.

It also did not provide the same information on pricing and costs of the FOD product. And it did not provide certain information to Eir on the same timescales and by the same processes as it did for BT, Ofcom said.