BT hit with record fine of £42m for rule breaches

Telecoms: £300m compensation bill

BT has been hit with a record £42million fine by the telecoms watchdog and is facing compensation costs to rivals of £300million over delayed highspeed 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 supposedtopay compensation after failing to deliver high-speed lines to 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 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 £ 4.6million penalty against Vodafone last year.

Openreach said it “apologised wholeheartedly” over the incident.

Gaucho Rasmussen, Ofcom’s investigations director, said: “These highspeed lines are a vital part of this country’s digital backbone.

“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.

“The size of our fine reflects how important these rules are to protect competition and, ultimately, consumers and businesses.

“Our message is clear. We will not tolerate this sort of behaviour.”

Many providers depend on BT’s vast network to deliver services such as broadband to customers.

Ethernet lines “underpin the UK’s communications infrastructure”.