Ofcom to oversee final phase of full-fibre rollout

(Sharecast News) - The telecoms regulator is to extend oversight of BT Group's Openreach broadband network for another five years, it was confirmed on Tuesday, as it continues to back the rollout of full-fibre across the UK. Ofcom put a five-year competitive framework in place in 2021, as it looked to rapidly grow the county's full-fibre network. Around 78% of UK homes now have access to fast full-fibre broadband, up from less than a quarter at the start of the period and just 6% in 2018.

The framework also helped boost competition, Ofcom said, with most premises now having a choice of at least two providers, either Openreach or Virgin Media, alongside smaller competitors known as altnets.

However, confirming plans to extend regulatory oversight, Ofcom said: "Openreach still retains significant power in the market, and we're not at a point where we can remove regulation entirely.

"We want to see competition continue to develop, and are therefore maintaining rules around its discounts and deals that could stifle investment and the development of sustainable competition."

That includes capping the nominal price that Openreach can charge retail providers such a Sky for download speeds up to 80Mbit/s, rather than 40Mbit/s at present.

However, Ofcom also acknowledged that Openreach should not have to incur "unnecessary costs" for running the older copper network alongside full fibre. It therefore plans to progressively shift regulation away from copper services, giving Openreach the "flexibility to encourage customers to migrate off its old copper network".

Natalie Black, group director for infrastructure and connectivity at the regulator, said: "Today marks a major milestone on the road to a better connected, more productive Britain."

Openreach said it would now examine Ofcom's review in depth. Head of regulation Mark Shurmer told Reuters: "This market is evolving rapidly and, with competition more intense than ever, it's really important that regulation keeps pace with that change."

Ofcom said full fibre was on track to reach more than 90% of properties by the end of 2027.

As at 1315 GMT, shares in BT were up 2% at 219.7p.