Yell Catches a Break From U.K. Regulators

This one surprised me a little. The U.K. competition commission has decided that Yell, which has been operating under a pretty strict price cap (actually a regime that required annual rate reductions), will from April 2008 forward be able to raise rates in line with inflation.

We had thought the commission might maintain the current rate cap, or even ratchet it up slightly, though Yell was no doubt preparing for any scenario.

Good sense seems to have prevailed here. We are going to study the ruling and write up an analysis in the next edition of Local Media Journal.

Here is some coverage of this development.