UPDATED: Ofcom to gives the thumbs up to BT fibre optic program
Ofcom appears set to give BT the go ahead to start their fibre optic broadband project that will see the UK telecomms giant provide up to 100Mbs speeds to 10 million households around the UK – vast amounts of small print providing.
It’s a little odd that Ofcom should have a change of heart given their last statement on the matter but it’s good to see that they’re cutting BT some slack. You see, the deal is that BT have to share their infrastructure with with everyone else and so, to make all the investment themselves for everyone to just undercut them might be a touch annoying for them.
So, I’d expect either Ofcom has granted BT some kind of licence to charge the other providers what they like in rental or a financial help in doing all the digging up in the first place. Whatever the case, expect underwhelming new speeds, more traffic jams and increasingly bandwidth heavy ads soon.
UPDATE: Yes, it’s happened. The man from Ofcom has officially said yes and to make life easier for BT and their £1.5bn outlay, price controls have been removed concerning other operators access to the network.
New builds can expect to have fibre to the home by 2012 with the first fibre to the cabinet packages available next year in Muswell Hill and Whitchurch, South Wales, from next year.
(via Techwatch)
