LONDON (Bloomberg) — BT Group Plc, Britain's largest phone company, is appealing a regulator's claim that it overcharged wireless providers such as Bermuda-based Global Crossing by £41.7 million ($60 million) for access to private circuits they need to connect some customers to phone networks.

The regulator, Ofcom, misused a dispute resolution process with the wireless operators by seeking repayment instead of setting fair prices for the future, BT's lawyers said at a hearing at the Competition Appeal Tribunal in London yesterday.

"What should be going on here is setting prices going forward," BT's lawyer Graham Read told a panel of three judges at the hearing. Ofcom's finding is "inherently wrong," Read said. The regulator is scheduled to argue its case at a hearing on October 20.

Ofcom said in October that BT should repay with interest money overcharged from 2004 to 2008 for access to the circuitry.