Britain sets rules for final phase of fibre broadband roll-out

LONDON, March 17 (Reuters) - Britain ​said on ⁠Tuesday it would regulate ​BT Openreach's national broadband network for another five years, ​with ‌a price cap on a wider range ⁠of speeds, to drive competition and ⁠extend fibre connections ​to the final fifth of the country's premises.

The competitive framework put in place by watchdog Ofcom ​in 2021 ‌has resulted in nearly eight in 10 homes having access to full-fibre broadband, up from less than a quarter fives ​years, in a rapid turnaround.

Around three quarters have ‌a choice of two providers - generally Openreach and Virgin Media or ‌an alternative smaller network - but Ofcom said Openreach still retained significant market power and it could not ​remove regulation entirely.

It said it would cap the ‌nominal price that Openreach can charge retail providers like Vodafone or Sky - who lease its infrastructure - ⁠for download ⁠speeds up to 80Mbit/s, ‌rather than 40Mbit/s at present.

The prices of higher-speed products will ​remain ​unregulated, so providers had an incentive ‌to invest in networks that can deliver faster speeds, it said on Tuesday.

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