Ofcom orders BT to cut line fees for competitors

Ofcom has demanded that BT improves business broadband services and 'significantly' lowers fees that the telecom provider charges competitors to use its lines. The regulator specifically ordered that business broadband lines be ready within 46 working days of the customer's order by March 2017.

Britain’s telecoms regulator has demanded better broadband services for businesses from BT, the owner of the UK’s biggest fixed-line network.

Ofcom said BT must install high-speed business lines more quickly and “significantly” reduce the prices it charges rivals for the lines.

The regulator noted on Tuesday that since 2011, the average time between a customer’s order and the line being ready had increased from 40 to 48 working days. Its new proposals will require BT to install high-speed lines for businesses in 46 working days by the end of March 2017, and 40 working days the following year.

It would also have to reduce prices for the lines, and propose prices and terms for rivals to install their own equipment to use its fibre connections.

Vodafone said that for the UK to catch up with other countries, , Ofcom must apply strict price controls on access to BT’s dark fibre, or high capacity, network.

BT said it accepted that “there is more to do on service” but argued that “ethernet provision can be complex and the need for street works and wayleaves [consent to work on private land]mean delays are often beyond our control”. “We are doing all we can to overcome such challenges,” it insisted, but noted that the price cuts would not help to underpin service improvement.

Ofcom’s demands come less than a month after it said it would impose higher service standards on BT’s networks division Openreach as part of its review of the communications market. The new rules will be finalised at the end of April and need the nod from the European commission.



The regulator has already told BT to help rivals use its infrastructure to lay fibre cables that are faster than its own copper network, but has stopped short of recommending that BT be forced to split off Openreach, the division that owns the broadband infrastructure. TalkTalk and Sky said last month that Ofcom had not gone far enough.

Vodafone said on Tuesday that a potential spin-off of BT Openreach should remain on the table. “We believe it is vital that the structural separation of BT Openreach remains an option Ofcom is actively considering as it could effectively address all of the current problems the regulator has identified in the UK telecoms market.”

BT criticised dark fibre as a “flawed piece of regulation” and a “cherry pickers’ charter benefiting those who don’t invest in networks at the expense of those who do including BT, Virgin Media, City Fibre and Zayo.”



BT also said that competition had been growing in the business market and said there was a “strong case for less, not more, regulation”.

Jonathan Oxley, Ofcom’s competition group director, said: “All of us depend on high-speed, fibre optic lines. Businesses use them to communicate, and they also underpin the broadband and mobile services used by consumers at home and on the move.



“BT is relied on by many companies to install these lines, and its performance has not been acceptable. These new rules will mean companies across the UK benefit from faster installation times, greater certainty about installation dates, and fast repairs if things go wrong.”