Ofcom chairman rejects fibre optics

By Simon Aughton

Posted on 12 Feb 2007 at 11:50

Ofcom has no plans to force telecoms providers to install optical fibre cabling to improve broadband speeds for homes and business located far from their local exchange.

The regulator's chairman Lord Currie told the Communications Management Association's (CMA) annual conference that there is currently no case for regulating on fibre to the home (FTTH, also known as fibre to the premises, FTTP, or fibre to the building, FTTB).

'For customers who live too far from an exchange, technically this is a problem that could be solved by fibre,' he said. 'But the services are not yet defined, the technology is not yet stable, and so it is too early for a regulatory approach. The case for digging up the road is a rather weak one.'

After conference delegates questioned his arguments, Currie conceded that there may be a case for deploying fibre to street cabinets, but no further. But his remarks will be no consolation to the 41 per cent of businesses who, according to a recent CMA survey, could not get broadband where they needed it, not to mention domestic users who may be unable to access the emerging range of high-bandwidth Net services such as IPTV.

BT, one of the few ISPs and network operators that could conceivably afford widespread FTTH installations, said late last year that it had no plans to adopt the technology as it is confident that its 21st Century Network 'will comfortably support customers' immediate needs'.