UK - regulator is to require BT to provide access to its infrastructure for rivals offering high speed broadband

[the guardian] BT will be required to allow competing broadband providers fuller access to its infrastructure, in a move aiming to speed up the rollout of superfast broadband services across the UK.

As a result of Ofcom's new regulatory regime, published today, competing internet service providers such as TalkTalk and BSkyB will now be able to use BT infrastructure – including underground ducts and telegraph poles as well as its fibre-optic network – to channel high-speed broadband to customers.

BT and cable company Virgin Media are the only providers with the infrastructure to offer superfast broadband – defined as 25 megabits per second (Mbps) or more – at present. However, TalkTalk today said it would be the first wholesale customer to use BT's network and Ofcom hopes others will follow suit.

The announcement was welcomed by BT, which added that it had been providing rivals with access to its fibre-optic network for months.


BT ordered to share fibre-optic network with rivals