Ofcom published a statement on 15 June 2006 in respect of the first batch of exemptions Requests from BT for specified exemptions and agreements to its Undertakings under the Enterprise Act 2002 – Part 1 (“Exemptions Part 1”) and included in this a list of the 15 outstanding requests. In recognition of the complex issues surrounding some of these requests, and the view that receiving comments on them from the wider industry would help inform Ofcom’s decision making process, on 18 October 2006 Ofcom published a consultation Requests from BT for specified exemptions and agreements to its Undertakings under the Enterprise Act 2002 – Part 2 in respect of 13 of these outstanding requests.
This statement concludes that consultation and includes a decision by Ofcom to agree to the nine requests which do not cover fibre-based products and includes the text of the agreement between Ofcom and BT formalising this decision. In respect of the four fibre-related exemptions (i.e. Redcare CCTV, Media & Broadcast services, managed radio communications services and Wavestream) Ofcom has decided that the complexity of the issues highlighted by respondents around these requests – and the need for the results from Openreach’s current Ethernet portfolio review to feed into the analysis – means that Ofcom needs more time to resolve these issues. Ofcom has therefore decided through a variation of the Undertakings to extend the existing temporary exemption in respect of these requests up to 31 March 2007.