I think what happened today with Ofcom’s announcement of its settlement with BT over access to BT’s network exposes some weaknesses in the EU / UK regulatory framework for telecoms. It seems that Ofcom’s ex ante telecoms regulatory powers are quite weak and that the regulator essentially had to use its Enterprise Act referral powers to extract concessions from BT.

To employ metaphorical thinking: Ofcom needed to perform surgery on its patient and needed a scalpel, but all it had was a club, so it held the club over BT’s head and made BT use its own scalpel on itself. Gruesome.

Is that basically what happened here?

And is this a procedural improvement over Oftel’s piecemeal and sporadic oversight of BT’s license? And what does this mean for the policy-making process generally? I generally don’t like the idea of regulatory negotiations conducted behind closed doors. But is that what’s needed to produce good outcomes in situations like this?

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