Progress in access to local loop battle

Ofcom has accepted undertakings from BT as to its future conduct in granting access to infrastructure to competitors, and BT has announced the launch, from January, of a new company "openreach" to deal with providing access to local network exchanges to all service providers (including BT).

These developments auger for at least a ceasefire, and period of reflection, in the ongoing battle over local local unbundling, and how best to encourage competition and innovation in the telecoms sector and beyond. The developments have also prevented, at least for now, an investigation into BT under the Enterprise Act by Ofcom - and the possibility of it being broken up, just as happened in all those old US cases about railroads and, indeed, telecoms.

It remains to be seen how the new arrangements will work in practice. Will there indeed be fair competition, creative innovation, and opportunities for users and potential competitors to participate in the telecoms market, and gain the benefits it can offer in terms of access to information, free expression and enjoyment of property? Hope so - but in the real world I think our competition and human rights research will continue to be relevant in this field for some time.