Leading British telecom firms are jointly calling out broadband regulator Ofcom to curb BT’s business broadband market monopoly.
The UK Competitive Telecommunications Association (UKCTA) wants Ofcom to let other companies lay their own cables in BT ducts and use their own equipment to control BT cables in order to improve service and boost innovation.
UKCTA, which compromises of firms such as Sky , EE, TalkTalk, Virgin Media and Vodafone, said that Ofcom “has now moved from competition to intrusive sector-specific consumer protection measures, often duplicating general consumer protection measures. UKCTA calls on Ofcom to return its focus to championing competition, which will drive innovation and enhance choice and the protection of consumers.”
The coalition is arguing that the legal separation of Openreach, which manages the national telecoms network, has not only delivered falling prices and rising speeds for consumers, but has also allowed BT to suppress competition.
Furthermore, the telecom firms claim that Openreach’s business connectivity monopoly has affected innovation and its poor record on responding to new line orders and fixing faults has harmed them.
As per the report prepared by telecoms consultants for UKCTA, Openreach has even failed to meet some of its performance targets in five years.
Ofcom, in response, noted that it makes “no apology” for protecting consumers, and that it goes hand-in-hand with promoting competition. The watchdog said its key aim as a regulator is to ensure that “customers benefit not only from innovation, but also from good quality of service and a fair deal.”
BT, meanwhile, claimed that UK has a vibrant wholesale business connectivity market, with strong competition and innovation amongst a large number of providers. BT noted that forcing Openreach to offer access to its ducts or dark fibre would result in increased costs as well as would add extra complexity to the way UK businesses are served.
Some European countries are enjoying 100mb/s+ Fibre coverage everywhere and meanwhile in Britain if you don’t live in a city forget it.. my village has been suffering with speeds between 6-14mb/s for ages and our upgrade to “superfast” by BT (which still does not exceed 100mb/s lol) keeps getting pushed back. Meanwhile in the city Virgin are providing 150mb/s..
Lets keep on topic here and to keep things fair lets compare what BT provide to a village with what Virgin/Sky/TalkTalk provide to the same village.
In my opinion it will not help matters to ban BT from slowly providing broadband to some areas. It wont be financially viable for other providers to lay miles of cable to a small community where less than £25 per household per month will be recovered. The government grant only covers 50% of the outlay, the rest has to come from subscribers and there simply isn’t enough of them in most villages.
That’s why the government should be providing 100% of the costs. Fast internet needs to be a right of everywhere in the country as it is for many countries already if Britain wants to stay ahead.