Ofcom confirms new broadband rules, won't regulate fastest Openreach fibre

On 23 February, the regulator submitted a draft of its decisions to the European Commission for consultation.

Following that review, the commission provided no comments, meaning Ofcom’s final decisions remained unchanged to those published in February.

The regulator’s main measures set out that BT must make its telegraph poles and underground tunnels, operated by its Openreach division, open to rival providers.

That would make it quicker and easier for rival operators to build their own full-fibre networks directly to households around the UK.

At present, most so-called ‘fibre’ connections use copper cables operated by either BT or Virgin Media - part of Liberty Global - to reach the consumer’s premises.

Full-fibre would see a glass cable laid all the way to the customer’s home, providing much better speed, reliability and future proofing than the older copper technology.

Second, Ofcom said it had decided not to regulate the prices of Openreach’s fastest wholesale superfast broadband products, including its new full-fibre services.

That was supportive of its incentives for operators to build full-fibre networks, the regulator claimed.

“Third, we are ensuring affordable access to superfast broadband for people and businesses, by cutting the wholesale price that Openreach can charge telecoms companies for its entry-level superfast broadband service, which has a ‘download’ speed of up to 40 Mbit/s, and an ‘upload’ speed of 10 Mbit/s,” Ofcom said in its statement.

In its draft decision last month, it proposed to set the monthly charge for Openreach’s ‘40/10’ broadband package by 2021 at £11.92.

Since then, it has adjusted the figure to £12.06 to reflect new information, particularly in relation to inflation and BT’s pension costs.

“Finally, the new rules will include stricter requirements on Openreach to repair faults and install new broadband lines more quickly.”