Ofcom's ruling that Openreach must open up infrastructure to rivals approved by EC

Move would allow rivals to supply 5G services to the lucrative enterprise sector

The European Commission (EC) has given the UK telecom regulator Ofcom permission to impose a new ruling on BT Openreach regarding access to its infrastructure.

Between them, competing providers are currently using around 12,000 Openreach telegraph poles and 2,500 km of underground duct, but Ofcom wants these figures to increase, as well as to open up Openreach's dark fibre networks for use by other providers.

Ofcom regulates the TV and radio sectors, fixed line telecoms, mobile communications, postal services and the airwaves over which wireless devices operate. The regulator has pushed for rivals to be given more access to Openreach's infrastructure for some time, and support from the EC should further this goal.

The draft regulations were originally published in May and have not undergone any significant changes since then. They are designed to give rival firms better access to Openreach's infrastructure. A former monopoly provider, through its Openreach subsidiary BT still controls the majority of the UK's broadband infrastructure such as poles, ducts and dark fibre networks. Rival providers have long complained that this situation has stymied their progress.

Openreach is already required to let rival companies use its poles and underground tunnels to lay their own fibre networks, under rules set by Ofcom last year. Until now, however, access has only been available to companies focusing on the residential and small-business sector, whereas the new ruling would extend it to rivals serving large businesses, and providers of high speed and mobile networks.

"Companies laying high-speed fibre cables for broadband and mobile networks will benefit from greater access to Openreach's telegraph poles and underground tunnels," Ofcom says.

The new regulation will also allow competitors to "light up" Openreach's fibre using their own equipment. Ofcom says this "would significantly reduce the cost for mobile and broadband operators to connect their networks, without undermining their incentives to lay new, competing fibre cables where it is economic to do so".

Extending access to Openreach's fibre infrastructure to business networks would improve the business case for firms wishing to invest in 5G networks. Enterprise services over 5G are predicted to highly profitable for telecoms businesses.