OFTEL refuse to co-operate ... twice (1 November 1998) As the previous page says, we were told off-the-record, but firmly, that OFTEL would not be answering our letter on the Eire situation. This was after more than three weeks of us trying to get a reply. It was also clear, from the remarks made at the time, that OFTEL do not like us, which is hardly a surprise. Of course, we are not satisfied with the lack of an answer; we, and you, are consumers - and the Green Paper on Regulation has a lot to say about that. So we have decided - in the first instance - to get our constituency MPs to put pressure on OFTEL to answer. The Radio 1 interview was also revealing in this regard. OFTEL and BT were both asked to put forward their views, which would certainly be opposed to ours; both refused with 'no comment'. They offered to fax statements to the BBC rather than put a representative up to be questioned directly; neither statement appeared. OFTEL told the BBC that the issue of call charging was BT's responsibility; the BBC noted that it would have been wonderful if BT had said it was OFTEL's responsibility. This didn't happen: BT said that the issue was their responsiblity, but still refused to comment. We can consider ourselves fortunate that the BBC has a charter which ensures fair coverage - both sides of an argument are given the opportunity to be aired. If one side declines to take the opportunity when asked, who are we to complain?