In a blow to the plans of the UK’s leading broadband provider, UK communications regulator Ofcom has concluded its consultation into a set of commercial offers from Openreach to new customers with the mandate that it removes one of the packages it intended to make available.
Specifically, after a consultation period, Ofcom has decided to direct Openreach to withdraw the Incremental New to Openreach Customer Offer, but not to intervene in relation to Openreach’s other notified offers.
The background to the decision dates back to June 2026, when Openreach notified Ofcom of its intention to roll out a range of offers, specifically the Incremental New to Openreach Offer, Geographic Incremental New to Openreach Offer and Frontbook ARPU Share Offer.
The former was set up to give internet service providers (ISPs) a monthly discount for bringing new full-fibre customers onto Openreach’s network. It applies only to new customers above an ISP’s normal number of new sign-ups. The discount was potentially up to £9.50 per customer for up to 30 months.
The geographic offer is aimed at areas where rival Virgin Media operates and is designed to provide a one-off £50 discount on new full-fibre customers to Openreach, above the usual number of an ISP’s new sign-ups. Independent broadband providers (altnets) also have significant presence in some of the areas covered by this offer.
Last, the Frontbook ARPU Share Offer is intended to cap what an ISP pays on average for new high-speed connections at £19.32 per month. In practice, it would make getting people onto higher-speed packages more commercially attractive to ISPs. Alongside these three, Openreach also plans other offers, including specifically for high-capacity business connections.
As part of its core function, Ofcom issued a Call for Inputs in June 2026, to review the offers and identify any competition concerns that could constitute grounds for regulatory intervention. In its provisional view of the Openreach offers made in July 2026, Ofcom said it was directing the broadband provider to intervene to withdraw its Incremental New to Openreach Offer, noting that under the offer, Openreach was targeting significant discounts at new customers that were key to altnets’ ability to grow their customer base, while leaving prices for other customers unchanged.
Ofcom then opened a consultation on its provisional views on the offers, noting that it had concerns that certain “aggressively” discounted pricing options were “not fair and reasonable”, and could harm competition in the UK’s broadband sector.
In its ruling, Ofcom said that it had determined Openreach’s charges under the Incremental New to Openreach Offer were not fair and reasonable, because they resulted in margins that may not allow a reasonably efficient operator to recover its costs. It also considered that because of its market position, Openreach was uniquely able to make such a targeted low-price offer.
The discounts, added Ofcom, were targeted at customers which are important to altnets’ ability to maintain and grow their customer base, while leaving prices for other customers unchanged. In its opinion, matching these significant targeted discounts may not allow competing networks to recover their costs, particularly given the low prices they are already offering across their customers, as they seek to grow take-up and overcome Openreach’s incumbency advantages.
As such, the regulator concluded that there was a risk that the level of the offer prices could harm the development of network competition, to the detriment of consumers in the long term.
By contrast, Ofcom regarded the scale of the discount in the Geographic Incremental New to Openreach Customer Offer meant it did not amount to undue discrimination in terms of targeting, and that the risk that the discount would harm long-term competition was not sufficiently plausible. Overall, Ofcom said that given the specifics of this offer, it was content for Openreach to implement the offer on this occasion. It also considered that the conditionality in the offer did not potentially create a barrier to using a rival network.
For the Ethernet Net Demand Offer, Ofcom noted that the conditionality attached to the package did not potentially create a barrier to using a rival network, and the price level did not raise prima facie concerns that would lead it to investigate in further detail.
Ofcom also remarked that the Frontbook ARPU Share Offer and Box Swap Offer, which commenced on 1 July, were not conditional or geographic offers. Ofcom determined that they did not raise concerns under its fair and reasonable fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) pricing requirements.
Not surprisingly, Openreach was disappointed with the judgement. James Lowther, Openreach managing director for commercial, said that while the provider continued to believe the offer would have benefited customers and competition, the company would review the decision carefully, and “continue to engage constructively” with Ofcom and customers.
“Ofcom’s decision not to approve our incremental FTTP new to Openreach offer is in line with their consultation position,” he said. “We put this offer forward in good faith to help our customers compete and deliver better value for households. We’ll launch our other offers and continue to compete fairly, including our FTTP offer within the VMO2 footprint and an ethernet offer for businesses. We’ll continue to invest in the UK’s digital infrastructure, bringing growth in every postcode and helping our customers deliver for homes and businesses.”
Not surprisingly, rival provider Nexfibre regarded Ofcom’s decision as a “positive step towards protecting competition in the UK fibre market”, but also emphasised that it would have liked to have seen the regulator go further.
A spokesperson commented: “Openreach’s tactic of drip-feeding price changes via special offers needs to stop at a time when competition remains nascent. Ensuring alternative networks have the incentives to invest, grow and achieve scale will be critical to creating credible, sustainable competition. That is precisely why our proposed acquisition of Netomnia matters; creating a stronger challenger that can drive competition, investment and greater choice for consumers.”
“Although we believe the regulator could have gone further, we welcome Ofcom’s move to clip Openreach’s wings on its most aggressive offer and looking ahead it’s crucial the dominant incumbent’s behaviour is fully kept in check as meaningful wholesale competition emerges,” added a Virgin Media spokesperson.
“More broadly, these repeated tactics show why consolidation in a fragmented, unstable fibre landscape is needed so that the sustainable, scaled challenge Openreach clearly fears fully materialises, leading to better outcomes for providers and consumers. In the meantime, we will carefully review the details of Ofcom’s decision.”
