Ofcom is planning to open up the £2 billion market for business broadband.
BT would be required to grant physical access to its fibre-optic cables, the so-called dark fibre, which would be directly connected to competitor equipment.
The regulator says the measure is designed to promote competition for ‘leased lines’ – dedicated, high-speed data links used by large businesses and mobile and broadband operators to transfer data on their networks.
The exception to the new proposal is London, where Ofcom already deems there to be sufficient competition.
“High-speed, fibre optic leased lines are invisible to most people. But they form a critical building block in the UK’s infrastructure that underpins people’s personal and working lives,” said Jonathan Oxley, Ofcom competition group director. “Today’s proposals should help businesses across the UK who rely on high-speed data lines. We want to see more innovation, faster installations and more competition, by providing operators with the opportunity to deploy the technologies of their choice.”
BT is already required to open up its domestic network and Ofcom has also published a new minimum quality of service performance requirements on Openreach, the division of BT that installs and maintains connections to BT’s network on behalf of competing providers. Its looking to speed up the time it takes to install equipment; Ofcom says Openreach has been missing initial dates.
As part of the dark fibre proposals, Ofcom would require BT to publish a draft ‘reference offer’ for industry, containing wholesale pricing and terms for access, in mid-2016.
Today’s proposals are subject to consultation, closing on 31 July 2015. Ofcom expects to publish its final decisions in the first quarter of 2016, taking effect in April 2016.
This would then be subject to negotiation between BT and other providers, with a view to BT publishing a final reference offer before the end of 2016. Dark fibre access would then be available to telecoms providers from April 2017.
