Ofcom opens probe into BT over possible failure to supply data

Britain’s telecoms watchdog has put BT Group under fresh scrutiny, opening a formal investigation after concluding that responses from EE Limited and Plusnet Plc may not have been complete or accurate.

Ofcom said the probe was launched on April 29 under section 137A of the Communications Act 2003. The regulator’s December 7, 2023 notice asked BT entities for data on customers who entered agreements or placed orders for fixed voice and fixed broadband services, information Ofcom said it needed to carry out its statutory functions and prepare its 2025 Comparing Customer Service Report.

The case matters because Ofcom’s requests were not routine information-gathering. They were legally binding, and the watchdog has said enforcement action can follow if it has reasonable grounds to believe a statutory breach has occurred. In this case, Ofcom said the evidence available so far suggests some responses from BT’s units may not have been complete or accurate, although it will collect more evidence before updating the market.

That puts compliance, not service quality alone, at the center of the dispute. Fixed-line and broadband data feed Ofcom’s ability to judge how well providers are treating customers, compare firms on service, and spot weaknesses in the market. For households and small businesses, those comparisons influence provider choice. For the regulator, incomplete reporting can mean weaker oversight of a sector that remains politically sensitive across the United Kingdom.

Ofcom’s own customer-service work shows why the data matter. Its 2025 Comparing Customer Service Report was the eighth in the series and was designed to help consumers make informed decisions while pushing major telecoms companies to improve. The report said most residential mobile, broadband and landline customers were satisfied in 2024, with mobile satisfaction at 88% and dissatisfaction at 4%.

The investigation also lands against a backdrop of tighter rule-setting for telecoms firms. Ofcom’s short and simple contract rules, which came into force on June 17, 2022, require customers to receive a one-page summary before signing up, covering the main terms including price, service speed, contract length and early-exit conditions.

BT has already been fined by Ofcom over customer-information failings. On May 22, 2024, the regulator imposed a £2.8 million penalty after finding that EE and Plusnet had failed to provide clear contract information to more than 1.1 million customers. That case has sharpened attention on the accuracy of BT’s compliance systems, and the new probe raises the prospect of further scrutiny over how the company handles regulator requests, data governance and internal controls.