BT Told To Share Fibre Network

“Only fibre unbundling will give alternative operators full and direct control over the product they offer to end-users,” said the Commission.

“In this specific instance, virtual unbundling seems the best option to safeguard competition and enable consumers to benefit from a wider range of services provided over next-generation fibre infrastructure,” said Neelie Kroes, the Digital Agenda Commissioner.

Rural Questions Remain

There is little doubt that getting fibre into the ground remains an expensive process and that many ISPs lack the financial muscle to do this. BT already announced back in February that it would open up its network of ducts and poles to competitors, so that rival ISPs could lay their own fibre under the street or along telegraph poles to millions of homes in the United Kingdom.

Virgin Media took them up on the offer in March, when it announced a trial using telegraph poles to deliver ultrafast 50Mbps broadband to the Berkshire village of Woolhampton.

And in May BT announced plans to scale-up the roll-out of its super-fast broadband around the UK. Under the new plan, BT is to invest around £2.5 billion in rolling out fibre to around two thirds of UK homes by 2015.

But question marks remain over how to fund the rollout of fibre to more remote locations. The Labour party proposed a broadband tax would push fibre coverage to 90 percent, but that tax was only expected to raise around £175 million a year, and attracted much criticism from the industry who said the numbers did not add up to provide super-fast fibre services to every UK home.

The Conservative Party has promised speeds of 100 Mbps for the “majority” of homes by 2017 by using money from private investors.

But in the meantime some rural communities in the UK have opted to pay for the installation of fibre themselves, especially in those areas where rolling out fibre is not deemed to be economically viable.