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Ofcom has also released its Business Connectivity Market Review which looks at strategies to increase competition for the provision of high speed broadband for business
UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has revealed plans to speed up the rollout of fibre to the home (FTTH) services across the country, by forcing Openreach to grant its competitors greater access to its network architecture.
Ofcom is currently consulting the industry on plans to force OpenReach to make its ducts and poles available to rival service providers. Ofcom’s current plans would see it implement a policy of unrestricted pole access rom spring 2019.
Ofcom hopes that the move will cut down on costs and increase competition in Britain’s full fibre broadband sector.
"We want to give companies greater flexibility to lay fibre networks that serve residential or business customers. So today, we are consulting on proposals to allow access to Openreach’s ducts and poles to companies offering any type of telecoms services including high-speed lines for large businesses, networks carrying data for mobile operators and high capacity lines supporting broadband services. We intend to implement this unrestricted duct access from spring 2019," Ofcom said in a statement to the press.
OpenReach has not yet commented on Ofcom’s latest proposals. The UK’s incumbent fixed line broadband operator plans to pass 10 million properties with FTTH services by 2025.
