CityFibre response to Ofcom Strategic review announcement

CityFibre has responded to the announcement by Ofcom of its intention to conduct a Strategic Review of the UK’s digital communication market Greg Mesch, Chief Executive Officer, CityFibre said: “CityFibre welcomes Ofcom’s announcement for a full strategic review of digital communications. The past decade has seen major improvements in service competition, but at the very high cost of underinvestment in digital infrastructure by BT. In infrastructure terms, the UK communications market is underperforming, with one of the lowest shares of fibre-connected buildings in Europe. BT’s new focus on content and mobile will further exacerbate this problem. “CityFibre is one of the few companies that is truly investing and building next generation digital infrastructure – our rollout of UK Gigabit Cities is underway. To accelerate this programme and deliver meaningful infrastructure competition, this strategic review must consider the optimal structure for pro-competitive fibre investment. The creation of a true level playing field for infrastructure investment, whether that means structural separation of BT or not, is crucial if the UK is to get the digital infrastructure it deserves. This is an opportunity through which we can engineer the right infrastructure environment to attract investment, catalyse innovation and improve services for business and consumers.”