Ofcom has opened consultations on proposed controls on BT‘s wholesale prices for its leased telecoms lines products.
The regulator is consulting on the level of price controls it would imposed, which would lead to price reductions for customers of the £2 billion leased lines market, including businesses, schools, universities and libraries.
It would also see savings for consumer mobile and broadband operators, which use leased lines for data transfer.
The regulations would affect older leased lines using traditional interface technology and newer lines based on the Ethernet standard. Older lines with bandwidths of up to and including 8Mbit/s will see a cap of between CPI – 6.25 percent and CPI – 14.25 percent, aiming for CPI – 12.25 percent.
For the Ethernet services, Ofcom proposes a cap of between CPI – 9.75 percent and CPI – 17.75 percent.
The charge caps were originally proposed in the Business Connectivity Market Review, in which Ofcom argued that BT‘s ‘significant market power’ needed to be curbed.
The charge control, which is linked to inflation through the consumer price index, would bring prices down to costs over three years.
Ofcom will also consult today on its dark fibre proposals of last month to provide guidance on how the price of dark fibre access should be calculated.
