The UK telecoms regulator has warned that they are “prepared to take action” against broadband ISPs that have failed to adopt the new One Touch Switching (OTS) process, which went live on 12th Sept 2024 and aims to make it easier and quicker for consumers to change provider. But not every ISP has joined, which is causing some consumers to struggle with switching.
Implementation of OTS is being handled by the industry-led One Touch Switching Company (TOTSCo), which acts as a sort of centralised messaging platform that all ISPs must use in order to properly harness the new process. But despite OTS being a mandatory requirement for all broadband and phone providers, some ISPs are continuing to lag behind on adoption, which can make it difficult for customers on those providers to switch.
Initially this wasn’t such a problem because, due to teething problems with TOTSCo’s matching process (i.e. ensuring that customer details are correctly verified and migrated between providers), Ofcom briefly allowed ISPs to retain the old NoT+ (Notification of Transfer) migration process – until 24th October 2024 – to act as a fallback. The loss of that fallback thus put everything on TOTSCo’s still imperfect system. But imperfect or not, none of that matters when an ISP hasn’t even managed to go live on the platform yet.
“We don’t know how to handle transfers from these providers. Today alone, we have had 3 orders for [redacted] that we can’t transfer, which is making us look like idiots. All we are doing is referring everyone to check the live TOTSCo list as proof,” said one provider to ISPreview, after becoming frustrated with ISPs that have yet to implement the new process.
An Ofcom spokesperson told ISPreview:
“We’re aware of certain companies that are not signed up to the One Touch Switch process, and we’ll be raising this with them. Providers have had more than enough time to implement this, and we’re prepared to take action against those that don’t comply.”
At least one ISP is known to have lodged a formal complaint with the regulator about the absence of certain providers from OTS (this mostly reflects smaller ISPs), which Ofcom will no doubt be looking at as part of their wider enforcement programme. Ofcom does have the power to impose significant financial penalties upon communication providers that break their rules.
According to TOTSCo, as of 11th November 2024 some 280 brands (e.g. ISPs, mobile operators and others) are now live in their public production directory, although it only takes a quick scan to realise that some names are absent from this list (e.g. Yayzi, Uno/XILO, Brillband, Pulse8, Rocket Fibre and others). We know that some of those are in the process of going live, often via a Managed Access Provider (MAP), but others remain uncertain.
Interestingly, some of the laggards in the OTS process don’t appear to have an Ofcom Reseller Identification (RID) code, which is a unique three-letter and three-number code that identifies a company that resells telecom services and telephone numbers in the UK.
Meanwhile, the latest data from TOTSCo (here) shows that the switch match success rate is still hovering slightly above the 60% mark. This reflects the number of delivered match success messages as a percentage of match request messages. But the customer experience will be better than this, as some of these messages are repeat attempts to match the same customer between providers.