LONDON, March 17 – British telecommunications regulators announced Tuesday they will continue oversight of BT Openreach’s nationwide broadband infrastructure for an additional five-year period, implementing expanded price controls to boost competition and bring fiber internet to the remaining one-fifth of properties across the country.
The regulatory approach established by watchdog agency Ofcom in 2021 has delivered remarkable results, with nearly 80% of households now able to access full-fiber broadband service – a dramatic increase from fewer than 25% just five years earlier.
While approximately three-quarters of consumers can now choose between two providers – typically Openreach paired with either Virgin Media or a smaller alternative network – Ofcom determined that Openreach maintains substantial market dominance, making complete deregulation premature.
Under the new framework, regulators will impose price limits on what Openreach can charge retail companies such as Vodafone or Sky – which rent access to its network infrastructure – for download speeds reaching 80Mbit/s, expanding from the current 40Mbit/s threshold.
However, pricing for premium high-speed services will continue without regulatory constraints, creating financial motivation for companies to invest in infrastructure capable of delivering faster connection speeds, officials explained Tuesday.
