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U.K. telco regulator seeks to make it easier for altnets to access incumbent’s infrastructure.
Ofcom on Tuesday announced new proposals that aim to make it cheaper and easier for the U.K.’s altnets to deploy their own fibre on BT’s ducts and poles.
"Fibre is the future for broadband, and Ofcom is helping to deliver that through competition between networks," said Yih-Choung Teh, Ofcom’s competition policy director, in a statement. "Our plans will give providers increased confidence to invest in their own full-fibre networks at reduced cost."
The telco watchdog is considering requiring BT’s infrastructure arm Openreach to upgrade the final connection between the premises and the network with fibre at the request of any retail ISP that wants it. Openreach would then charge the ISP for the deployment cost.
Ofcom has also proposed changes that mean BT would recover the costs of providing third-party access to its ducts and poles in the same way it recovers these costs for its own deployments, for example, by spreading them across all services that make use of a duct. Ofcom is also considering capping duct rental prices in a bid to provide greater planning certainty for altnets.
Ofcom also wants Openreach and altnets to have the same process of conducting site surveys, to reduce what it says are unnecessarily onerous requirements on the latter. In addition, Ofcom suggested that BT rivals that rely on Openreach to carry out engineering work should know when any work should be completed. Alternatively, altnets should be allowed to carry out engineering work themselves.
Furthermore, Ofcom has suggested that Openreach provide comprehensive data on the nature and location of its ducts and poles, making it easier for retail ISPs to plan and deploy networks.
Ofcom has launched a consultation on its latest proposals; interested parties have until the end of January 2017 to respond.
