(Adds details)
LONDON, March 18 (Reuters) - Britain said on Thursday it
would create the conditions for BT to invest billions of
pounds in rolling out full-fibre broadband nationwide by giving
it flexibility on the pricing of its fastest services for the
long term.
"We aim to allow all companies the opportunity to achieve a
fair return over their whole investment period, and do not
expect to introduce cost-based prices for fibre services for at
least ten years," regulator Ofcom said.
The new regulations, which will apply to BT's national
Openreach network until March 2026, allow the company to keep
the price it charges operators for entry-level 40 Mbit/s
broadband and slower copper packages flat and charge more for
regulated products delivered over full fibre instead of copper.
"This approach improves the investment case for BT and its
rivals by providing them with a margin to build the new
networks," it said.
Once fibre networks are in place, Ofcom said it would
progressively remove regulation on copper so Openreach would not
have to maintain two networks.
BT has said it needed the conditions to make a fair return
before it gave the go-ahead to billions of pounds of investment
on fibre broadband.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Sarah Young and Kate
Holton)
Vodafone (VOD)
BT (BT.A)