Last checked at 
LONDON (Alliance News) - UK media and communications regulator Ofcom on Friday said it has tabled proposals which would allow companies looking to provide high-speed telecoms lines for businesses to be granted access to BT Group PLC's fibre networks, and said it has tabled new service requirements for BT's Openreach arm.
Under the plans, BT would have to give its competitors physical access to its fibre-optic cables, allowing those competitors to take direct control of the connections. BT is already required to offer wholesale leased-line products, which bundle the fibre-optic cable with its own network equipment, but Ofcom said the new proposals would go further, allowing operators to use the BT cables with their own equipment, rather than BT's.
The service is often referred to as 'dark fibre', as the cables would not be 'lit' using BT's electronic equipment, but rather by using the competitors' own equipment installed at either end of the cable.
The measures are part of the Business Connectivity Review undertaken by Ofcom, under which the regulator also will propose placing new, minimum quality of service requirements on BT's Openreach network infrastructure division.
Ofcom is concerned that Openreach often takes too long to install leased lines, and too often changes the date on which it promises to deliver services. Under the new plans, a first quality of service rule would require Openreach to return to an average time between a customer's order and the line being ready of 40 working days by 2017, while a second rule would mean it must meet these targets for 80% of customers by 2016 and 90% by 2018.
The changes are subject to a consultation, which will close on July 31. Ofcom expects to publish its final decisions in the first quarter of 2016, with the changes to come into effect in April 2016.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
