Summary
Introduction
1.1 Ofcom regulates the accuracy of bills issued by providers of electronic communications services. We do this through General Condition 11 (GC11) of the General Conditions of Entitlement . The condition requires providers of publicly available telephone services (PATS) with a relevant annual turnover in excess of £40m to seek and obtain approval of their metering and billing systems from third party assessors against a prescribed standard.
Approval Bodies
1.2 The third-party assessors that providers of PATS seek and obtain approval from are appointed by Ofcom and are known as Approval Bodies. They are identified in GC11.7(b).
1.3 There are currently two Approval Bodies:
- the British Approvals Board of Telecommunications (BABT); and
- the British Standards Institution (BSI).
1.4 Ofcom has received a request from a third organisation, Enigma QPM Ltd. (Enigma), seeking to become an Approval Body. We assessed Enigma's eligibility against set criteria and consulted on our proposal to appoint Enigma as an Approval Body .
1.5 We have considered all of the points that were raised in response to our consultation and we consider that Enigma can now be appointed as an Approval Body because it fulfils the relevant requirements. Enigma's appointment as an Approval Body will take effect from the date of publication of this statement.
Modification of GC11
1.6 GC11.7(b) lists the Approval Bodies, so to implement the appointment of Enigma, we are modifying GC11.7(b) by adding Enigma to the list of Approval Bodies. The modified condition will come into effect from the date of publication of this statement. The modification to GC11.7(b) is set out at Annex 5.