Ofcom, the office telecom regulator for the UK, announced a number of proposals intended to increase sustainable and effective competition in broadband data, content and voice services. The proposals focus on:
- Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) to allow operators to target investment and to develop scale in the creation of new and competitive high-speed data services based in the UK's local broadband exchanges. Ofcom welcomes BT's commitment to that process and its announcement of a 70% reduction in its charges to operators leasing unbundled shared local loops. (LLU is a process by which the dominant provider's local loops are physically disconnected from its network and connected to another communications provider's network. This enables competing providers partly or wholly to lease a customer's access line and provide voice and/or data services directly to end users over that access line.)
- the establishment of a Telecoms Adjudicator, independent of regulator and industry, intended to oversee the swift development of LLU processes.
- a framework, pricing approach and a technology evolution path for Wholesale Broadband Access, enabling all operators to plan for long-term and large-scale investment.
- In the fixed-line voice market, the need to address some of the structural disadvantages inherent in the current Carrier Pre-Select (CPS) regulations. In this context, Ofcom welcomes BT's commitment to offer local call bundles to its CPS competitors interconnecting at the local exchange, with the benefit of greater cost savings and operational efficiency.
- Ofcom is reviewing and will be consulting on the overhead wholesale charges paid by operators to BT to connect to BT's network.
