BT’s £42m fine for ‘serious breach’

BT has been hit with a record £42 million fine by the telecoms watchdog and is facing compensation costs to rivals of £300 million over delayed high-speed cable installations.

Ofcom said BT’s Openreach infrastructure arm committed a “serious breach” of its rules for reducing payments owed to other providers such as Vodafone.

The telecoms giant was supposed to pay compensation after failing to deliver high-speed lines to the rival companies in adequate time.

The communications regulator has rules to curb BT’s “significant market power” to ensure competitiveness, including an obligation to provide the so-called Ethernet cables within 30 days. The huge sum is the largest fine issued against a telecoms provider by Ofcom and almost 10 times larger than the previous record, a £4.6 million penalty against Vodafone.