Ofcom wants BT to open infrastructure to rivals

Ofcom on Tuesday unveiled proposals to allow British Telecom's rivals to use the telecoms company's infrastructure like telegraph poles to run competing high-speed broadband networks.

The regulator also said BT would be allowed to set prices for the wholesale selling of its new £1.5bn high-speed broadband network to rivals such as Carphone Warehouse's Talk Talk and British Sky Broadcasting. Ofcom's proposals would give rivals physical access to BT's underground pipes and overhead telegraph poles to provide super-fast broadband to their own customers. In doing so, competitors could lay their own optical fibre cables without the expense of digging up pavements. Ofcom said BT would have to share information about the quality and capacity of the ducts. An Ofcom survey in 2008-09 indicated some areas of the network had up to 40-50 per cent with room for new cables.