Communications giant British Telecom has hit the headlines again after being accused of defamation by another communications firm

Just a couple of weeks ago communications giant British Telecom hit the news over its broadband service when it managed to escape having two of its broadband advertisements banned by the Advertising Standards Agency. However, the company is now in the news again after being accused by another provider of defamation. This comes as Internet Service Providers continue their battle to try and stay a step ahead of heir competitors and increase custom.

According to a recent report Tiscali has started legal proceedings against BT after accusing the firm of “defamation and malicious falsehood”. The report claims that officials from BT contacted a number of Tiscali customers informing them of rumours that were going around about Tiscali’s future, whilst promoting their own broadband service to these customers.

There have been a number of rumours about the future of Tiscali recently, according to the report, with some claiming that the firm is to be bought by mobile communications giant Vodafone. There have been questions raised with regards to how BT officials managed to get hold of the contact details of the Tiscali customers in question. Despite the legal action BT is denying having done anything wrong.

One official from BT stated: “Following media reports suggesting that Tiscali was up for sale we recently approached a number of Tiscali customers, and pointed out the benefits of our service. We believe this is a legitimate and reasonable business practice - comparative marketing is an important aspect of a competitive market.”

Another analyst said that competition was so tough amongst providers now that companies that most people assume monopolise the market are having to be tougher and more inventive to gain customers. He said: “Most people have broadband and so BT is having to be smarter to acquire new customers.”