Fixed Access Review Delay Triggers BT Openreach UK Line Rental Hike

BTOpenreach, which maintains BT’s national UK phone and broadband network, has said that it anticipates a “three month … delay” in the publication of Ofcom’s final statement of the Fixed Access Market Review(s) and the associated LLU and WLR charge control review. As a result they’ve decided to put some of their line rental prices up.

Ofcom had been expected to publish the outcome during the early part of Spring but in a statement Openreach said that it wanted to give ISPs “certainty on pricing during the period between the current charge control ending on 31st March 2014 and the new control starting” (currently expected to be 1st July 2014).

Openreach Statement

Openreach has made a voluntary commitment to Ofcom that, regardless of the three months anticipated delay, for WLR and LLU core rental products (WLR rental, MPF rental and SMPF rental) we will charge a weighted average price* for the 2014/15 year that is in consistent with the control(s) if they had started on 1 April 2014. All other WLR and LLU prices will be left unchanged between 1 April 2014 and 30 June 2014, after which the new control is expected to be in place.

In order to achieve this without being non-compliant with the price ceiling Ofcom will determine, Openreach is increasing the prices in advance of the control for any core rental product where Ofcom propose prices could increase in the future LLU and WLR charge controls.

In short, Openreach will increase the rental prices for their Wholesale Line Rental (WLR Basic Rental) and Fully Unbundled (LLU MPF Rental) lines. The WLR service will thus rise from £93.32 to £96.17 per year and LLU MPF lines will similarly see a big rise from £83.92 to £96.37.

However if Ofcom should decide on a slightly lower adjustment then Openreach has pledged to “calculate the excess revenue charged to each Communications Provider and apply a rebate to the August 2014 bill“. The above prices are expected to be introduced from 17th May 2014 and further details can be found here.