Openreach Remains BT's Anchor as Broadband Losses Are Reduced
BT Group is the UK's incumbent telecom operator, owning the most wide-reaching wholesale fixed-line network (Openreach) in the country. Years of regulatory discussions and tensions caused BT to severely underinvest as it sought a regulatory framework that ensured acceptable returns on capital. The approval of the Equinox plan, which sets wholesale pricing for communication providers in Openreach’s network for the next 10 years, seems satisfactory for BT and has caused fiber-to-the-home investments to soar. BT aims to cover 25 million homes with FTTH by 2027, or 90% of the country, up from less than 10% in 2019. However, network duplication is increasing in the UK as alternative networks like CityFibre or Community Fibre have taken market share, with Openreach losing 825,000 broadband lines in fiscal 2026, mainly low-speed lines.
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