Ofcom says BT must cut its wholesale cost
BRITISH consumers should see a fall in the price they pay for broadband and landline services after the telecoms regulator said BT would have to cut the price it charges other providers to use its network.
Ofcom said it had proposed lower prices for BT’s Openreach division, which provides wholesale access for other communications providers.
The proposals will affect two aspects of the BT business, the Local Loop Unbundling service which allows communications providers to install their own equipment in Openreach’s exchanges, and the Wholesale Line Rental service, which allows providers to rent lines from BT.
Under the proposals, the price for a line to a property for a provider using its own equipment will fall between 1.2 per cent and 4.2 per cent below inflation every year. The price of a rented line will fall between 3.1 per cent and 6.1 per cent every year.