BT gets thumbs up to roll out new broadband pricing with competition concerns cleared

HOLLY WILLIAMS

BT HAS been given the all-clear to roll out its discounted wholesale full-fibre offer to broadband providers after the telecoms watchdog found the proposals were not anti-competitive.

BT’s network arm Openreach, which runs the UK’s only national broadband network, put forward plans for a pricing deal that would give lower prices to wholesale customers, such as Sky, Talktalk and Vodafone.

But this was only if they agreed to use mainly Openreach’s full-fibre products for new orders instead of its legacy copper products. The plans – called Equinox 2 – were criticised by BT’s competitors, such as Virgin Media O2.

This comes after Altice, the French telecoms firm, said it will up its stake in BT to 24.5 per cent, but it “does not intend” to make a takeover bid.

An Ofcom spokesman said “based on the evidence available to us, we don’t consider Openreach’s new pricing discounts to be anti-competitive”.

Openreach has also pledged not to change its pricing under the plans until at least 31 March 2026, according to Ofcom.

Openreach CEO Katie Milligan, said: “This is good news for customers as it means lower prices and longterm certainty –encouraging the switch to faster, more reliable broadband connections. It’s also good news for the UK, as it supports our continued multibillion-pound investment in upgrading the country’s broadband infrastructure.” shoppers to scale back on home improvement products.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said that B&Q blaming poor weather for the drop in sales “won’t draw much sympathy”, though strong sales of big ticket items would provide some solace that consumer spending is holding up. Shares closed down 2.55 per cent.

Londonmetric, a FTSE 250 real estate investment trust (REIT), yesterday said it had agreed an all share offer for CTPT at a value of 85.5p per share. The offer marks a 34 per cent premium on CTPT’s share price before the offer period began. Shares in CTPT surged to close up 25 per cent yesterday.

Bosses at the firm have now recommended the offer to shareholders and said the deal had a “compelling strategic and financial rationale for shareholders in both Londonmetric and CTPT”. A tie-up between the two firms would create an organisation with some £3.3bn in combined assets.