Finance
Britain Sets Rules for Final Phase of Fibre Broadband Roll-Out
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 17, 2026
2 min readLast updated: March 17, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 17, 2026
2 min readLast updated: March 17, 2026
Britain’s communications regulator Ofcom will extend regulation of BT Openreach until 2031, increasing the wholesale price‑cap to 80 Mbit/s speeds to spur competition and complete fibre rollout to the remaining fifth of premises.
LONDON, March 17 (Reuters) - Britain said on Tuesday it would regulate BT Openreach's national broadband network for another five years, with a price cap on a wider range of speeds, to drive competition and extend fibre connections to the final fifth of the country's premises.
The competitive framework put in place by watchdog Ofcom in 2021 has resulted in nearly eight in 10 homes having access to full-fibre broadband, up from less than a quarter fives years, in a rapid turnaround.
Around three quarters have a choice of two providers - generally Openreach and Virgin Media or an alternative smaller network - but Ofcom said Openreach still retained significant market power and it could not remove regulation entirely.
It said it would cap the nominal price that Openreach can charge retail providers like Vodafone or Sky - who lease its infrastructure - for download speeds up to 80Mbit/s, rather than 40Mbit/s at present.
The prices of higher-speed products will remain unregulated, so providers had an incentive to invest in networks that can deliver faster speeds, it said on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Kate Holton)
Britain will regulate BT Openreach's national broadband network for another five years, including expanded price caps to drive competition and extend fibre broadband access.
Nearly eight in 10 UK homes have access to full-fibre broadband, up from less than a quarter five years ago.
Ofcom maintains regulation because Openreach still holds significant market power and competition is not yet sufficient to entirely remove oversight.
Openreach will have capped prices for download speeds up to 80Mbit/s, compared to the previous cap at 40Mbit/s. Higher-speed products remain unregulated.
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