BT CEO Ian Livingston has said the UK incumbent may challenge a preliminary decision by telecoms regulator Ofcom against pension payments being factored into wholesale charging structures.
“We will be making strong representations as to why this is…
BT CEO Ian Livingston has said the UK incumbent may challenge a preliminary decision by telecoms regulator Ofcom against pension payments being factored into wholesale charging structures.
“We will be making strong representations as to why this is incorrect and will be pushing back on it…”, said Livingston during a results webcast late last week.
A spokesman for the operator played down the comment, saying that BT was in the early stages of examining the preliminary ruling, which is still in the consultation stage.
Announcing quarterly results, Livingston said that the group’s pension scheme deficit had fallen from £9bn at the end of 2008 to around £6.6bn at March 21, 2010.
The market value of the BT Pension Scheme assets was £35.3bn at March 31 this year and £33.9bn at June 30, 2010.
Proposals published last month by Ofcom stated that the regulator intends to continue to disallow BT from taking deficit repair payments and pension “holidays” into account when setting the company’s regulated charges.
Ofcom also revealed intentions to publish a final statement on the pensions review by the end of this year.
