The BBC's free rein to offer services over the internet is being challenged by a member of the select committee on culture, media and sport.
Julie Kirkbride MP has tabled a series of questions for culture secretary Chris Smith, asking him to state whether boundaries exist to limit the BBC's online ventures. She is particularly concerned about the effect on commercial operators competing against the corporation.
"I would like to know what is and what isn't in the BBC's remit," she said. "At the moment it seems to be about how the governors feel on the day when they wake up and whatever Chris Smith decides to act on - both of which are indeterminate. They just haven't thought these issues through.
"What we have is this old thing called the BBC which sits very uneasily amid the changes in the media and no one has really thought what role it should now have. It is a very grey area."
The challenge comes at a time when the BBC has begun ramping up its involvement in the internet, encouraged by the huge success of its award winning News Online site.
Last month it launched a dedicated sports website and has plans for arts, lifestyle and local city and county sites.
It has received stiff criticism from the private sector which claims the BBC brand is stifling competition.
A decision by the BBC governors has, however, called a halt to the corporation giving away free content to mobile phone networks after intense lobbying by rival news provider ITN. "I'm extremely concerned that the BBC is seeking to operate like a business with the taxpayers' money," Miss Kirkbride added. "They are spending the licence fee on the internet and giving content away free to commercial operators often without the cognisance of the public."
A BBC spokesman said the corporation is "pretty much four square behind the idea that there is room for a public service broadcaster to be on the internet."
Four questions were tabled by Miss Kirkbride last week. However, they have yet to be answered.
She has asked for a 1998 agreement struck between Mr Smith and BBC Online on its activities to be published, whether that agreement permits the distribution of content to commercial operators free of charge and at what date his department was informed of the mobile phone plans. She also asks when he will begin a review of BBC Online.
