Ofcom, the UK’s media and communications watchdog, revealed yesterday that it may have to step in to resolve the dispute between BT and its rivals about how much it’s charging for access to its telephone poles.
Earlier this year, Ofcom forced BT to share its infrastructure with other UK ISPs so it could expand its respective fibre optic broadband networks through the poles rather than digging up the streets.
However, BT is struggling to reach an agreement with the likes of TalkTalk, Sky and Virgin Media over the payment structure.
This has lead to Ofcom’s CEO, Ed Richards, stepping in and saying:
“It would be much better if the parties could just agree a commercial rate.
“However, I think it is unlikely they will agree.”
Speaking about the negotiations that are set to run into June this year he said:
“If after that there is no agreement, and there is a dispute brought to us, we will end up setting a price.”
