Ofcom closes investigation into BT’s compliance with broadband USO rules

Ofcom has today closed its investigation into BT's compliance with its obligations as a broadband universal service provider.

The UK Government introduced the universal broadband service to give everyone the right to request a decent and affordable broadband connection, subject to certain eligibility criteria. Under the scheme, BT will pay the cost of connecting eligible properties, providing the cost is £3,400 or less. If the required work costs more, the customer can choose to pay the difference.

BT must take into account that costs may be shared among other customers who could use the same infrastructure. However, BT was not doing this in the way we expected and some customers were asked to pay materially higher amounts.

We opened an investigation into this and as a result, BT has changed its approach for quotes where the cost of connecting a property is not significantly above the £3,400 threshold. BT has also refunded affected customers and re-issued quotes it has previously provided.

We are satisfied that BT has implemented these changes, and have therefore closed our investigation.