BT to open up access to ducts

BT appear to be hedging their bets over who will be the next government by announcing that they are working with Ofcom on a regulatory regime where they will provide access to their ducts for others to lay fibre - just a week after the Tories called for this to happen.

Chief Executive Ian Livingston said:

"We told Ofcom last year we're willing to provide open access to our ducts ... and we are working with them on how to achieve it.

Open access to all ducts, not just ours, might help BT and others extend coverage and so we would like to see a future government support such a move."

The last statement is clearly a reference to Virgin Media's cable network.