Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, is under pressure from several influential business groups advocating for an automatic compensation scheme for connectivity services that includes business customers.
Three influential business groups are spearheading this push: the British Chamber of Commerce, the Federation of Small Businesses, and the Institute of Directors. These organizations have joined forces to support an earlier plea initiated by business fiber provider, Vorboss, which has advocated expanding consumer protection to include UK businesses.
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Automatic Compensation: Input from Stakeholders
In a joint letter addressed to Ofcom, the business groups underscored the severe economic impact of connectivity outages on the UK economy.
“We are writing to you to express our collective support for an automatic compensation scheme for fixed business connectivity,” the letter stated. “We all want to play a part in helping the UK economy to grow, but connectivity outages are significantly hampering this ambition.”
The letter draws on recent research commissioned by Vorboss, which revealed that more than half of UK businesses with fixed connectivity services experienced at least one outage in the past year. The economic cost of these disruptions was estimated to be around GBP 17.6 billion in lost output. Despite this significant impact, most affected businesses reportedly received no compensation, highlighting a gap in consumer protection for businesses, particularly smaller ones.
James Fredrickson, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Vorboss, expanded on his stance regarding automatic compensation. “It’s clear from the responses of the biggest business internet providers that compensation is anything but automatic,” Fredrickson said. “Hiding behind compensating on a ‘case-by-case’ basis is exactly what Ofcom needs to put a stop to.”
Fredrickson pointed out that the typical compensation offered to businesses is minimal. Standard business internet tariffs offer only GBP 7.53 per hour of outage—an amount he likened to the cost of a pint of craft beer in London. This, he argued, is grossly insufficient compared to the estimated GBP 18,000 in lost productivity a typical London business faces annually due to connectivity issues.
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