Response to plans for acceleration of Copper Switch Off by BT Openreach

In a response to news of plans for the acceleration of Copper Switch Off by BT Openreach, Greg Mesch, Chief Executive Officer at CityFibre said: "In light of our funded and mobilised Gigabit City programme to deploy wholesale full fibre infrastructure to at least five million homes, Ofcom’s exclusive focus on BT Openreach as the vehicle for migration from copper to fibre is wrong. Retiring the copper network needs to be managed in a way that promotes competition, benefiting every builder of fibre networks, rather than simply reinforcing BT Openreach’s existing market dominance. Consumers should have the power to switch to any full fibre network. CityFibre stands ready to play its part in transferring the nation's homes and businesses onto a new generation of fibre networks."