For now, BT has avoided the need to spin off Openreach from the rest of BT, although it has ensured that the threat of separation remains in place until a strengthened model of functional separation can be agreed. The regulator plans to develop a set of proposals with the European Commission, a so-far unused and untested process. A quicker route to the same outcome would be a voluntary agreement between BT and its rivals that Ofcom would make binding through a variation to the so-called undertakings that BT signed up to back in 2005. Ofcom seems open to this approach, having confirmed that voluntary proposals could also address the concerns identified. Ultimately a long and protracted regulatory battle is not in the interests of BT, its competitors, or the consumers and businesses reliant on the broadband infrastructure.

Ofcom is also suggesting that there could be greater choice for businesses and consumers in the form of competing network infrastructure. This would be achieved by alternative operators deploying their own fiber using BT’s network of ducts and poles. Since 2010 BT has been obligated to share this infrastructure, but so far there has been very little interest in it actually doing so. Ofcom maintains that this is because of “operational process issues” and is calling on BT to engage with its rivals to see what needs to be done to make greater use of these ducts a reality. In some ways this puts the ball firmly in the court of those calling for more fiber investment, who have so far found the process unworkable.