Ofta probes breach claim

City Telecom (CTI) is being investigated by the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (Ofta) because of possible breaches of the industry advertising code in relation to international call offerings.

New T&T last month filed a complaint with Ofta claiming CTI had left it out of its 'ultimate price guarantee' offer of free calls to certain destinations and competitor discounts.

An Ofta official said the authority was processing the complaint and was expecting to reach a conclusion in one to two months.

This came after a complaint filed in March against CTI, in which it was accused of excluding a competitor's promotional offer of free calls to Australia and Canada from its 'ultimate price guarantee' Web site advertisement.

The complaint was later dismissed by Ofta after investigations, due to a lack of evidence substantiating the complaint.

The complaints were filed amid keen competition in the industry, which saw operators launch increasingly aggressive below-cost tariffs to lure customers away from their competitors.

In January, Ofta concluded New T&T was in breach of the advertising code following a complaint that one of its print advertisements had conveyed an inaccurate and misleading message, which caused confusion among customers. New T&T had said in the advertisement that all customers registered for its special offer plan would enjoy a certain lower tariff, but in fact the offer was only applicable to Wharf Cable TV customers.