If you’ve ever complained about your broadband costs , then you’ll be happy to hear that Ofcom, the telecoms regulators, are trying to introduce price cuts.
In a statement issued today, the regulators proposed that Openreach, the BT division providing wholesale access to other communications providers, lower their prices.  Ofcom said that they hoped that the resultant savings would “ lead to real-term price reductions for consumers.”

Companies which either rent lines from BT wholesale or use BT’s Local Loop Unbounding (LLU) service, through which broadband providers install their own equipment in Openreach’s exchanges, would see costs go down.  For LLU, this is expected to be between 11.6 and 14.6% annually, while wholesale rental would go down in price by between 1.4 and 4.2% annually.

Increased competition
Ofcom said in their statement that they has already seen increased competition in the telecommunications industry result in lowered prices for customers, both across the landline and broadband markets.
Of the nations’ 19 million broadband lines, over 70% are with providers other than BT. Prices have fallen by an average of 52% since 2005.

BT concerned
BT in their own statement welcomed Ofcom’s recognition of the investments they have made in the UK’s  communication industry, but said that it was ‘critical they receive fair return….to continue…investment.” They added that they questioned some of Ofcom’s conclusions and are expected to bring up their concerns during the consultation process.

Ofcom themselves will publish their final findings in August. Any savings that result, unfortunately, will take  a bit more time to appear on the bill – price cuts won’t be introduced until 2014.

You read more about this story on the BBC website