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News update
Ofcom decides not to introduce temporary dark fibre remedy
UK communications regulator, Ofcom has decided not to introduce a restricted
dark fibre remedy for the period up to March 2019. The regulator consulted on proposals to introduce a restricted dark fibre remedy for leased line services at and below 1Gb/s until March 2019 last November, following a judgment by the Competition Appeal Tribunal. The remedy would have required BT to
provide a restricted form of dark fibre in the leased lines markets until March. The measure has been under debate for some time, with the regulator first proposing that companies be granted access to BT’s fibre back in 2012. The plan was revisited as part of the Business Connectivity Market Review in 2015 but was met with opposition by a number of UK fibre providers, including CityFibre, euNetworks, Virgin Media and Zayo. This recent iteration was also, according to Ofcom, met with little enthusiasm from those companies to which the move was designed to help. Ofcom’s statement said: ‘In November,
following a judgment by the Competition Appeal Tribunal, we consulted on proposals to introduce a restricted dark fibre remedy for leased line services at and below 1Gb/s until March 2019. ‘In response, companies that are most likely
to purchase dark fibre (e.g. TalkTalk, Three, Vodafone) made it clear that a service at higher bandwidths would be significantly more useful to them. Some telecoms providers told us they would only use a dark fibre product that was restricted to lower bandwidths in very low volumes, because they were likely to need to
upgrade to higher bandwidths within the next few years. ‘We have therefore decided not to introduce
the restricted dark fibre remedy for the period up to March 2019, but instead to consider the potential for a dark fibre remedy as part of our further market review. ‘We continue to believe dark fibre can play an
important role in promoting competition in leased lines – supporting better broadband and mobile services.’ Mark Collins, director strategy
and policy at CityFibre, said: ‘Ofcom’s decision to withdraw its recently proposed restricted Dark Fibre Access remedy recognises that the supply of alternative dark fibre solutions is increasing at pace in many UK towns and cities. The decision to stimulate
CityFibre’s Mark Collins welcomed the announcement from Ofcom
infrastructure competition rather than impose deeper regulation of BT Openreach’s products is consistent with Ofcom’s strategy
to reduce the UK’s dependency on Openreach and is warmly welcomed by CityFibre. ‘CityFibre’s expansion plans – which target up
to 100 towns and cities by 2025 and include projects already underway to deliver full fibre to homes across whole cities – are best supported through Ofcom’s introduction of duct and pole access (DPA). ‘We welcome the opportunity to engage with
Ofcom in its upcoming Business Connectivity Market Review (BCMR) to help shape regulation that drives competitive investment in, and consumption of, full fibre connectivity nationwide. ‘We will urge Ofcom to remove the remaining
restrictions on DPA to help accelerate the rollout of alternative fibre solutions.’
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CALIX AND INFOSYS TO ACCELERATE SERVICE PROVIDER ADOPTION OF AXOS PLATFORM
Calix has entered a strategic multi-year partnership with Infosys to accelerate communications service provider adoption of AXOS, its software defined access platform. Both companies will jointly invest in
order to co-create new services and value-added offerings on the platform. Calix has worked toward a unified access network for a decade, and it says that AXOS – which launched in 2015 – delivers on the promise of the software defined network, enabling providers to deliver all services on a single, elastic network that is always on. By reducing time-to-market for new
AXOS capabilities and broadening its offerings, the new partnership between Calix and Infosys is designed to enable service providers to accelerate deployments of next generation access networks that will reduce operating costs and allow roll out of new services at a faster pace. Infosys will develop and deliver new
software modules for the AXOS platform with the aim of reducing network operating costs for service providers, whilst improving network intelligence and delivering improved subscriber experiences. Carl Russo, president and CEO at
Calix commented on the partnership: ‘Infosys shares our vision for the future of the universal, unified access network and understands the value of a collaborative, standards-based and open approach to innovation.’ Ravi Kumar, president and deputy
chief operating officer, Infosys, added: ‘We are evolving our business model by partnering with innovators such as Calix to help our customers digitise their businesses.’
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