On 27 April 2017 the Digital Economy Act received its Royal Assent and therefore became law. The bill had been before Parliament since July 2016 and was subject to a number of amendments before being rushed through owing to the general election on 8 June 2017.
Ofcom tries again with a duct and pole access remedy
Ofcom is now consulting on a revised duct and pole offer to be imposed on BT. This forms part of Ofcom's recent strategic shift to focus on removing potential barriers for providers other than BT to deploy fibre.
Ofcom to regulate wholesale price of fibre for the first time
On 31 March 2017, Ofcom published a number of consultation documents in relation to its Wholesale Local Access Market Review. The three key proposals are for a broadly stable LLU charge control, a new wholesale price control on some of BT's fibre network and tougher quality of service standards for Openreach.
