Reply to post: Re: Be careful what you wish for (again)

Re: Be careful what you wish for (again)

Agreed completely.

I fear that Ofcom hasn't looked at history and all the other attempts to knobble BT and promote "competition". Not just the cable TV fiasco but mobile too - has it been good to have 5 radio networks? I can't see how - and neither can the mobile operators (five became four, and they've paired up to share costs)

I can very much see the current Ofcom policy, which is to make it as difficult as possible for Openreach to do anything while believing that competition will provide, ending up in the same way. They'll all be fighting for pennies per user. Ironically, I can see Openreach coming out of this unscathed. They might fibre up the less desirable areas and cream off the profits while making losses in the cities

Hyperoptic won't touch anywhere difficult - they prefer doing blocks of flats. B4RN is not scalable. Gigaclear has some rural experience - but just like Openreach's own FTTP, it's taxpayer funded, and they don't have poles or duct networks as Openreach (or the local electricity co) do. Cityfibre seem to be more interested in press releases.

I'm reminded of Royal Mail and the EU-imposed "liberalisation". All that happened is that the "competitors" cherry picked the easy delivery zones and paid Royal Mail an unprofitable rate to do the rest. At least RM have been allowed to increase prices to match reality (and Ofcom hasn't yet forced them to give up parcel deliveries because it might be unfair for the couriers!)

There are some reports that Ofcom might divvy up the country into franchises and give each provider exclusivity / funding in those areas. It's like the 80s all over again...