back to article Ofcom calls on BT Openreach price cuts for ISPs

Ofcom is pushing for a price fall in broadband and landline services, after the telecoms watchdog said today that BT would have to slash charges it currently dishes out to providers that use its network. The regulator has proposed lower prices for BT's wholesale wing of its business that gives other ISPs access to install …

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  1. Big_Ted
    WTF?

    What ????????

    I can't be reading this right..........

    Ofcom want BT to drop the price charge every year.......

    So not only do they not get to pass on inflation rises but also get millions per year less...........

    Meanwhile the isp's get to increase prices and add the extra they no longer pay each year to boost profit per customer.......

    Well you can kiss goodbye to that fiber line you hoping for as BT will have no incentive to invest millions anywhere that LLU is now or could be soon......

    1. AndrueC Silver badge
      Grenade

      F'ing mad, isn't it?

      So the one company that is doing the most to improve the UK's telecoms infrastructure, the one that is risking the most to give us a brighter(*) future gets told to cut its prices.

      The companies that have done nothing but ride on BT's coat tails and refuse to roll-out beyond the juiciest exchanges get to increase their profits. They in fact get an even easier ride on BT's coat tails.

      When the BLOODY HELL is Ofcom going to pull its head out of its arse? The UK's telecoms market needs investment. You're not going to get that by telling the only company capable and willing to do it to cut access charges.

      (*)Yeah, okay. So BT is a pretty shit company at times and a pain in the arse to work with. But they are the only company we've got that can do this stuff. If BT won't do it, no one will.

  2. gautam

    Heard it all before

    Ofcom is only "urging" BT to cut wholesale prices. (1.2 to 4 percent) Is it enought? WIl BT give in?

    Its all a hogwash.

  3. Da Weezil
    Grenade

    Wrong places to cut.

    Jeeze LLU is already as cheap as chips and has lower data costs (usually meaning far higher cap levels) . its time OFCOM redressed the imbalance in charging for 20cn & Market 1 exchanges where we are held to ransom with over priced data costs for the slower vanilla ADSL services.

    Faster services seem top have lower costs and higher data caps while the old tech slow lane 20cn Market One areas have slow speeds low caps (due to BTws ridiculous data prices) at a cost usually higher than the faster more generous LLU services, and only a fiver or so less than some FTTC services, all this on equipment that has more than paid for itself.

    As ever OFCOM looking after the cherry picked areas - time they were abolished! OFCOM seem content in allowing BTw to continue to rip off Market One customers with predatory pricing - some of which was justified to "leverage" users onto 21cn... hah! those upgrade dates disappeared when FTTx roll out started. so some areas are getting a second "next gen" upgrade in a couple of years while many still wait to be brought into the 21st century!

    1. AndrueC Silver badge
      Thumb Down

      Er...no

      >OFCOM seem content in allowing BTw to continue to rip off Market One customers

      M1 exchanges are the dregs (from a business perspective). No amount of whining is going to change the basic economics, demographics and geography involved. If BT really was overcharging for those exchanges then they wouldn't be M1. M1 exchanges are usually expensive to operate and/or any investment has an RoI that runs for years.

      The reason an M1 stays an M1 is because BT's prices are /at worst/ an accurate reflection of the costs involved. More likely they are an understatement with most M1 exchanges being cross subsidised from M2 and M3.

  4. Captain Underpants
    Badgers

    @Big_Ted

    I'll be honest, I've never gotten the impression BT want to invest in their network *anyway*, so telling them to stop trying to fuck over smaller competitors probably isn't a bad idea.

    I can't help but notice that when I switched from BT to Virgin (due to a house move where BT wanted to charge me the same price as a brand new install to transfer my line) I ended up with a wider range of better services for slightly less per month; I also noticed that it was only after Virgin had made a big fuss about their 50MBit fibre service rollout that BT even tried to get in on the game with their hilariously-badly-named 20MBit Infinity service.

    TL;DR version - F*** BT! F*** 'em right in the ear! It's about damn time they got their act together.

    1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
      FAIL

      re: Captain Underpants

      You might have gotten a speed improvement with Virgin Media but where I live so many people have signed up the DL speeds from 4pm to 11:30pm are miserable even on their New wonder 30Mb service.

      I get 5.5Mb 24/7 over DSL. My standby Virgin media service is severely throttled that I tend to only use it for ISO downloads in the middle of the night.

      As for their 50Mb vapourware service. They keep coming on the phone trying to sell me it. Then when they go through the signup service they find out that it is not available in my area and won't be for 3-5years as we supposedly just had a cable upgrade. no we didn't VM. That is why your service sucks at peak times.

      Oh, and BT are going to put a FFTC box 100m away in May. Guess who will be using it first?

      It will be worth it even thoug I will have to endure their constant (2-3 times a month) mail and phone sales calls.

    2. Steve 48
      Thumb Down

      Yah, right...

      Virgin won't provide a service to our village beacause it's "economically unviable", even though some of their high capacity backbone fibre runs less than 1m from my front door. There is a proposed new housing develpment, BT have said that if it goes ahead then they will upgrade the local infrastructure; Virgin response - it's not even worth providing it in the new development - depsite new build being far cheaper to install to / getting the developer to pay for!

      BT are investing in areas where they will get a modest return that will help to fund investment in low return areas - that's how the ADSL rollout was done

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Investment decisions driven by profit

    Less money for BT Wholesale, but more profit for BT Retail, I think, but doubt this would net out as competition will help keep prices low (lower than they would be without it) for BT Retail voice and broadband products.

    I would imagine that lower wholesale revenues on 'traditional' copper-based products and WLR3 will have a significant impact on the speed with which investment is made in fibre infrastructure. Ultimately lower margins means that infrastructure investment becomes a less attractive investment proposition for BT and the City.

    Other than Virgin media, who else has the financial muscle to build out a new high-speed access network? Oh good, xDSL broadband forever then unless you live in an urban area with high-revenue potential...

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    What about Kingston/Krapoo

    Now if only they would have a go at out local overpriced monopoly. Our only competition is a few wireless suppliers with limited range.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Virgin on the impossible

    'Virgin had made a big fuss about their 50MBit fibre service rollout'

    They are a pretty amazing company, anyone who can squeeze light down copper coax has my admiration !

    Or maybe its not a true fibre service ?

    'Other than Virgin media, who else has the financial muscle to build out a new high-speed access network?'

    Except that VM has a huge mountain of debt (inherited from all the original cable co's) and I doubt they have much spare for additional roll out.

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