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Ofcom said it was opening a consultation on what price controls
would apply to some of BT's wholesale leased line prices, which
could result in price cuts for customers in the 2 billion pound
($3.10 billion) market.
Business customers using the leased lines include consumer
mobile and broadband operators as well as companies, schools,
universities and libraries.
"Ofcom is proposing a form of charge control that aims to bring
prices down to costs over a three-year period," the regulator
said in a statement on Friday. "This type of control, which is
linked to inflation based on the consumer price index, provides
an incentive for BT to make efficiency gains."
BT said it believed there should be less regulation in the
market and it would be presenting its views on the proposals to
the regulator.
"Businesses already have a diverse and growing choice amongst a
large number of providers. More regulation could discourage
future investment in the UK's telecoms infrastructure," BT said
in an emailed statement.
Ofcom said its consultation would close at the end of July and
it expected to publish a decision in the first quarter of next
year.
The consultation is also considering how to price the opening up
of BT's leased line business network to other operators, a move
which it hopes will improve competition in the high-speed data
link market.
Broadband companies TalkTalk, Sky, business telecoms providers
COLT and GTC, and mobile operators Vodafone, 3 and EE, said last
year they wanted the business lines opened up.
($1 = 0.6454 pounds)
(Reporting by Sarah Young. Editing by Jane Merriman)
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