The One Touch Switching Company (TOTSCo), which is the industry-led company that is helping to implement Ofcom’s solution (One Touch Switching) for easier and quicker UK consumer switching between broadband and phone providers, has now started to consult on contract changes to enable business switching.
The current OTS system is a Gaining Provider Led (GPL) process, where the customer contacts their new (“gaining“) ISP to start and manage the process on their behalf. But the new process is, technically, only a requirement for residential customers.
The national telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has previously stated that this is because “business and residential customers can sometimes have different needs when switching and that there is diversity among business which means it may not be appropriate to specify certain rules that would apply to all business customers in the same way as to residential customers.”
The catch in all this is that businesses are still required by Ofcom to follow most of the same OTS rules (i.e. Ofcom simply have not specified what the process should be for business ISPs) and so, in practice, TOTSCo recognises that many business providers may see a benefit in using their platform in order to deliver a switching solution. But to be clear, there is no requirement for any ISP or Managed Access Provider (MAP) to use TOTSCo’s business switching solution (once it exists). “Business switching is a competitive market,” said TOTSCo’s latest bulletin.
However, TOTSCo has already begun work to develop a switching solution for businesses alongside the separate Gaining Provider Led Business (GPLB) Switching Industry Process (here), which has continued today with the launch of a new 21-day consultation (running until 31st January 2025). This is proposing changes to their User Agreement and MAP Agreement to “enable us to adapt those contracts to the requirements of business switching.” This will be followed by a further 90-day period before the changes, once approved, are adopted.
The organisation has previously indicated that the first integration testing of all this probably won’t begin until Q2 2025.