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The British telecom regulator has announced plans to force BT to let rival telcos access the firm’s infrastructure such as telephone poles and underground ducts.
Ofcom boss Ed Richards said "This is very, very significant, it is a milestone announcement. This is our most important contribution to deployment."
Other broadband ISPs such as TalkTalk, Virgin Media and BSkyB will now be able to access new fibre being rolled out as part of the superfast broadband network. Virgin Media had been attempthing to negotiate such access but failed to come to an agreement with BT.
Virgin now has plans to provide super fast Internet services by running fibre optic cables along telephone poles to reach homes directly. TalkTalk also announced that it would become a wholesale customer of the new BT network promising speeds up to 40Mbps.
BT managed to make the decision sound like a triumph by saying that the move provided "regulatory clarity and certainty" which the telco claims it was seeking all along.
