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Better value rural broadband coming

Rural parts of the UK could receive better value broadband services under proposals published by Ofcom. Ofcom has proposed significant reductions in the prices that BT Wholesale can charge internet service providers (ISPs) in parts of the country where it is the sole provider of wholesale broadband services - mainly in rural areas. The proposed price reductions are between 10.75% and 14.75% below inflation. As a result, Ofcom expects competition between retail ISPs, who will benefit from the lower wholesale prices, to lead to reductions in retail prices which will benefit consumers and businesses alike. The changes may also lead to better quality services by enabling ISPs to allocate more bandwidth per customer which could deliver faster broadband services. This could benefit nearly 12% of UK households or around 3 million homes and businesses. These are mostly in rural areas including parts of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as the South West of England, Norfolk, Yorkshire, Cumbria, Northumberland and other areas. In other areas of the country where there is some wholesale broadband competition delivered by local loop unbundling, Ofcom is not proposing any charge controls.

The announcement follows a decision by Ofcom in December to lift wholesale regulation in more areas of the country where it concluded that broadband competition is working well for consumers.Ofcom expects to publish a statement in the summer and the charge controls are planned to come into effect shortly after publication of the statement.

For further information please refer to: http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/wba-charge-control/

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Post Date: January 21st, 2011