Vodafone challenges new Ofcom rules on leased line rates

Vodafone has lodged a complaint with the Competition Appeal Tribunal, challenging new rules which it believes will give Openreach too much opportunity to abuse customers.

Following the latest Business Connectivity Market Review rules published in June, Ofcom granted Openreach greater freedoms to charge customers more for leased lines. These leased lines underpin home broadband, cloud hosting and 5G, as well as services offered directly to the citizen, such as banking, healthcare, and local and central government online services.

“Ofcom has now changed its approach and is regulating based on what it hopes will happen in the future, rather than based on the evidence of how the market works now,” Vodafone said in a press release.

The relaxation of rules has been based on various investigations over the last few years, though Vodafone has found issue with a few points.

Firstly, the Business Connectivity Market Review suggests Openreach does not have significant market power in the London region. Vodafone disagrees with this, suggesting market share of between 60% and 70%, exceeding the levels defined as market domination by Europe.

Secondly, Vodafone disagrees about the removal of a cost-based price cap in favour of a flat rate price cap. The cost-based approach was much more fluid, moving with the real cost realised by Openreach. Vodafone suggests Openreach costs are only going down, therefore the wholesaler will benefit significantly from the change.

Finally, in some cities Ofcom expects competition to enter the fray, therefore pricing regulations have been loosened. From Vodafone’s perspective, the facts are simple; competition hasn’t yet entered the market, and the regulations should be kept in place until they actually do.

In some parts of the saga, Ofcom has perhaps acted slightly irresponsibly, though you always have to remember this is a PR assault from Vodafone. Weaponising the press, as Vodafone is trying to do here, is often accompanied by emotive language, exaggeration and quoted figures which push right to (or perhaps beyond) the edge of estimate ranges.

This is not to say they will not prove to be accurate, but it is always worth remembering the presence of massaging and manipulation.