BT and subsidiary Openreach have been fined £42 million for late broadband installations, a record fee for regulator Ofcom.
The fine was distributed as a result of BT’s late broadband installations for rival internet service providers such as Virgin Media and Sky, with Openreach handling installations for the majority of UK ISPs. In order to counter BT’s dominance over the market, the company is required to install high-speed internet lines within 30 days. If it is not able to do so it must provide adequate notice to ISPs, with Ofcom ruling that it had not done so.
According to Ofcom, BT had cut compensation payments to rivals and claimed that installation delays were as a result of factors beyond the company’s control, which was not true. As such BT has been ordered to pay out £42 million, a 30% reduction on its initial £60 million fine as a result of BT admitting full liability The company has also claimed that it expects to deal out an additional £300 million in compensation.
An investigation was launched by Ofcom after Vodafone complained about BT, with the mobile phone company relying on Openreach for its services. The investigation found that BT had failed to meet its 30-day deadline, but had then claimed that these installations had been agreed upon by its rivals, allowing it to avoid paying out any compensation.
BT’s Openreach failed to install broadband services within a 30-day period.
Openreach CEO Clive Selley said of the decision: “We apologise wholeheartedly for the mistakes Openreach made in the past when processing orders for a number of high-speed business connections.
“This shouldn’t have happened and we fully accept Ofcom’s findings.
“Since I became CEO of Openreach in February 2016, we have monitored this area very closely, we have made improvements to how we process and deliver such connections, and we will make sure the same mistakes aren’t repeated in future.
“This issue is unrepresentative of the vast majority of work conducted by Openreach and we are committed to delivering outstanding service for our customers.”
BT has also been fined an extra £300,000 for failing to provide information to Ofcom during its investigation.
(H/T BBC)
