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Following its strategic review, U.K. regulator issues draft statement covering installation and cost of leased line services for businesses.
Ofcom on Tuesday called on BT to speed up the installation of leased lines to business customers and to reduce the wholesale prices it charges for such lines.
The U.K. telecoms regulator published a draft statement in the wake of an industry consultation into the matter. In it, it ruled that BT’s access arm "Openreach is taking too long to install leased lines," and is failing to ensure that services are provided to the customer on the date promised.
Ofcom said its investigations show that Openreach fails to complete one in four leased line installations on schedule and proposed that by the end of March 2017 the company must complete 80% of orders by the date initially promised, rising to 90% from April 2018. It will also require Openreach to fix at least 94% of leased line faults within five hours.
The new rules apply to Ethernet-based leased line services, Ofcom said.
"BT is relied upon by many companies to install these lines, and its performance has not been acceptable," said Ofcom competition group director Jonathan Oxley.
"These new rules will mean companies across the U.K. benefit from faster installation times, greater certainty about installation dates, and fast repairs if things go wrong," he said.
Ofcom is also concerned about the price businesses are paying for leased line services. As a result, it has proposed bringing down wholesale prices over a three-year period starting 1 May this year, with new prices linked to the consumer price index (CPI).
The regulator has proposed an initial 12% reduction in BT’s Ethernet-based leased line services at speeds up to and including 1 Gbps, and an initial 9% drop in "traditional interface services" at speeds up to and including 8 Mbps.
Ofcom also confirmed that, as per the results of its strategic review, it will require BT to provide physical access to its dark fibre network to providers of high-speed leased lines for businesses.
"We have outlined plans to reduce the country’s reliance on BT’s Openreach division," Oxley said. "Our proposals on dark fibre do just that, letting BT’s competitors better serve their customers by getting direct access to BT’s optical fibre cables."
Tuesday’s draft document will be followed by a final statement from the regulator next month, once it has received feedback from the European Commission.
On the dark fibre access issue, Ofcom will require BT to publish a draft reference offer covering wholesale pricing and terms for access by 1 September and, following negotiations with other providers, a final reference offer by 1 December. According to that time timetable, dark fibre access should be available to providers by 1 October 2017.
