Posted: 30th Jun, 2005 By: MarkJ
Full details of BT's recent agreement to the proposals made by Ofcom's telecoms review, which avoided the operators break-up, have been set out today in numerous documents on the regulators website.
The one of most interest, which concerns broadband regulation (specifically that of local loop unbundling [
LLU]), can be read here:
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/rwlam/bbr/Ofcom believes that the margin stability that BTs commitments provide, together with the reduced rental charge for fully unbundled loops and BTs stated plans about other LLU system and process improvements, should deliver a more solid basis for LLU operators. These measures will also help to ensure that ISPs who are not investing in LLU have a greater range of better priced wholesale services in the future.
In summary, Ofcom believes that, taken together:
* margin stability until 1.5 million lines have been unbundled;
* a maximum IPStream reduction of 3% after this up until 1 April 2007 or the conclusion of the WBA Market Review;
* plans to review the broadband market to ensure appropriate regulation on an ongoing basis; and
* the commitment to deliver equivalence of input for LLU and backhaul products in 2006 combined with other earlier process improvements;
These measures create the foundation on which LLU operators can base their commercial plans and enable a more competitive broadband market to deliver more innovation, greater choice and lower prices for ISPs and consumers.