British telecoms regulator Ofcom has published statements on both its Wholesale Broadband Access (WBA) market review and its Wholesale Local Access (WLA) and WBA market reviews related to the Hull area.
Among the main conclusions with regards to the nationwide WBA market review, Ofcom said it had determined that: it is now appropriate to now take services provided over fibre access networks into account in the geographic market analysis; and that the size of the geographic areas where consumers have limited choice of broadband provider has reduced to just 1% of UK premises, down from 10% as per its 2014 WBA review. Meanwhile, having analysed the conditions of competition, Ofcom found that former monopoly BT held a position of significant market power (SMP) in WBA services provided at a fixed location in Market A (the 1% of premises where there is limited competition), while it said no provider held a position of SMP in Market B (98% of premises).
With the remaining 1% of premises being in the Hull area, Ofcom’s review covering this area concluded that Kingston upon Hull-based KCOM, which for historical reasons has been the dominant operator in the area, continues to exercise SMP in both the WLA and WBA access market, and as such it confirmed it had imposed a package of remedies with a view to addressing this and promoting competition in retail and wholesale fixed telecoms services.