‘BT fixation’ could delay UK gigabit broadband rollout
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Joseph O'Halloran
| 22 March 2021
Despite the rapid recent acceleration of gigabit broadband across UK, deployment of full-fibre access could be delayed if independent providers and their investors believe that the regulator is not willing to listen to their concerns, the Independent Networks Co-operative Association (INCA) has warned.
community fibre
INCA’s statement comes hot on the heels of UK regulator Ofcom revealing the results of its five-year market review of the telecoms sector and the UK government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) announcing the first phase of Project Gigabit: a £5 billion fund for rural connectivity. Yet, insists INCA, the regulator and Government re not aligned when it comes to the growing sector of independent digital infrastructure providers the so-called altnets, that the association represents.

Indeed INCA stressed that altnet investment is desperately needed to hit government connectivity targets, even though it says the regulator’s market review statement dismissed the sector’s concerns.

It added that under plans to cover the hardest to reach areas, it appeared that the government fully expects a range of altnets to bid for contracts in the build out programme, alongside BT Openreach and increasingly substantial independent players like CityFibre which has grown substantially over the last twelve months. INCA noted that at Ofcom, whilst recognising ‘that smaller altnets play an important role in providing fibre to rural areas’ serving ‘rural communities at a time when Openreach has not been willing to extend its network,’ does not view the same altnets as capable of providing significant competition to BT - in the same hard to reach areas.

“While government recognises the importance of the competitive market, Ofcom seems fixated only on incentivising BT to invest, dismissing the majority of altnets as bit players, recognising few of their concerns in the market review statement,” remarked INCA CEO Malcolm Corbett. “If operators and their investors believe that the regulator is not willing to listen to their concerns and act on them it risks delaying deployment and undermining the government targets, particularly in more challenging rural areas.”

INCA said that many of its members have raised significant investment to serve communities throughout the UK, a figure it puts at around £9 billion. Given that the overall cost of renewing the UK’s digital infrastructure is calculated to be £30 billion, INCA says that altnet investment is desperately needed alongside BT’s £12 billion, up to £10 billion from V irgin Media and Government investment of £5 billion.


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