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Watchdog Ofcom slaps huge penalty on broadband provider over delays

BT has been slapped with a £42 million fine by telecoms watchdog Ofcom and is expected to pay out an additional £300m in compensation to rivals over delayed high-speed cable installations.

Ofcom said BT Openreach had committed a “serious breach” of its rules by reducing payments to other providers between January 2013 and December 2014.

The firm was supposed to pay out compensation after failing to deliver Ethernet high-speed services to other, smaller providers in adequate time.

It said it “apologised wholeheartedly” over the incident.

Under Ofcom rules, Openreach is obliged to give telecom companies access to their vast network to ensure competitiveness.

Ofcom’s investigations director, Gaucho Rasmussen, said: “Millions of people rely on BT’s network for the phone and broadband services they use every day.

“We found BT broke our rules by failing to pay other telecoms companies proper compensation when these services were not provided on time.”

Compensation will now have to be paid to affected providers, including Vodafone, within 12 months.

BT had faced an even greater fine, but this was slashed by 30% after it admitted full liability.

It was fined a further £300,000 for “failing to provide information” to Ofcom.

Openreach chief executive Clive Selley said: “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.”

Picture: Kris Miller. BT Openreach is obliged to give rivals access to its fibre broadband network.