Sky suspends Picnic broadband launch

Sky Broadband's plans to launch its Picnic service suffered a major set back as the UK telecom regulator has been dissatisfied with the responses submitted by the stakeholders to its consultation. As a result, Sky had to shelve its new product which features broadband, home phone and TV services, according to a report.

Sky broadband provider issued a statement in this regard:

"The blunt truth is that Ofcom has spent 18 months looking at our proposals and there is no end in sight. The Picnic team have done everything they can to prepare for launch and there's nothing left to be achieved until Ofcom makes its mind up."

It should be noted that Sky announced its plans to launch Picnic in February 2007. Consequently, Sky took took two months to submit the necessary application and a further two months to provide sufficient information to enable Ofcom to publish a consultation document on the matter.

However, Ofcom looked into the details of the project and Pay TV Market Investigation, several stakeholders, including BSkyB, responded late to these submissions. Sky broadband provider submitted its response on the PayTV Market Investigation over six weeks after the 26 February 2008 deadline.

"We have received a number of supplementary submissions from stakeholders after deadline dates which we are bound to consider. The most recent one from BSkyB arrived as late as 13 August 2008."

Ofcom Statement

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