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Ofcom orders BT to share fibre network with rivals

Communications watchdog Ofcom is deliberately reducing BT’s monopoly of the broadband market as part of its new proposals to accelerate the spread of fast broadband across the UK.

BT is the broadband market leader in the UK and Ofcom is now forcing it to share that with its competitors. The good news for BT is that it will be able to set the charge for its rivals to access the network.

BT’s grand plan is to ensure that 40 percent of homes are covered by fibre optic cables over the next two years. These are rapidly eliminating the current, traditional copper cables in a bid to catch up with the broadband technology boom in the Far East.

Most of the western world lags far behind Japan and South Korea where around ninety percent of homes already have access to “super-fast“ broadband compared to just 35 percent of homes in the USA.

BT met the news with little protest except for a request that Virgin Media should also be forced to open up its network. This was denied by Ofcom who do not feel that Virgin has enough presence in the broadband market to make that worthwhile.

In a surprise twist, BT then actually revealed that they have been in talks with Ofcom over the past month since the Conservatives released their broadband manifesto and while the news has only just gone public, its fibre network has already been open to competitors as of last month. However so far none of their rivals in the market have made use of this.

The debate over broadband speeds has become an increasingly important political tool as the general election approaches with both Labour and the Conservatives vying to impress voters with their policies to encourage the growth of faster internet in homes.

Last month, the Tories unveiled a plan to make the market more competitive using funding from the BBC licence fee while Labour has promised to bring broadband speeds of 100Mb to every home in Britain over the next decade.