Ofcom has signalled it is prepared to give BT the assurances it was seeking before making a £1.5 billion (€1.69bn) investment in its network. The telco was concerned regulation might prevent it from getting the necessary returns from its network upgrade.
BT plans to offer speeds of between 40 and 60 Mbps to around 20 million UK households, matching the 50 Mbps service currently being rolled out to the 50% of households covered by cablenet Virgin Media, and delivered through fibre to the cabinet. A further one million households would receive fibre to the home enabling speeds of 100 Mbps.
Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards said he wanted to send a signal that there were no regulatory barriers in the way of super-fast broadband “We want to promote investment but also ensure that there is fair and effective competition for the future.”
In a statement the regulator said there was no need to impose regulation on other companies where there was no significant market power.
