Openreach FTTP pricing: what Ofcom’s review of the new offers really means
In short: The Openreach FTTP pricing and Ethernet offers notified to Ofcom on 2 June 2026 are not subject to approval. Under the Telecoms Access Review 2026-31, Ofcom decides only whether to intervene on competition grounds, and on the Equinox record it rarely does. Its Call for Inputs closes on 19 June 2026.
If you have built a fibre network to compete with Openreach, the question raised on 2 June 2026 is a familiar one. Can you match the wholesale discounts Openreach is about to put in front of the large retail providers, and if you cannot, will the regulator step in? Openreach has notified Ofcom of new full-fibre and Ethernet offers due to take effect from 1 October 2026, and the record of the last five years suggests the regulator is unlikely to intervene.
The notification is a regulatory event because Openreach holds significant market power. New Openreach FTTP pricing must be put to Ofcom 120 days before it goes live, and Ofcom has opened a Call for Inputs with responses due by 19 June 2026. What follows is not a price approval. It is a window in which the rest of the industry can give Ofcom reasons to intervene. On the record since 2021, it has not done so.
The regulatory background to Openreach FTTP pricing
Openreach’s wholesale pricing is regulated because Ofcom has found that BT, through Openreach, holds significant market power in the wholesale fixed markets. Under section 78 of the Communications Act 2003, a finding of significant market power lets Ofcom impose conditions under section 87, including a duty to provide access on fair and reasonable terms, a prohibition on undue discrimination, and price controls under section 88. Those conditions are set in a market review and run for the review period.
The conditions that govern Openreach FTTP pricing come from the Telecoms Access Review 2026-31, which Ofcom finalised on 17 March 2026 and which took effect on 1 April 2026. We set out the framework in our analysis of the Telecoms Access Review 2026-31. The review keeps the pro-investment design of the 2021 market review: anchor pricing on the entry-level fibre product to guard against margin squeeze, a non-discrimination condition, and pricing freedom on the faster tiers so that Openreach can earn a return on its build. It also requires Openreach to notify new charges and commercial offers 120 days in advance, so that Ofcom can assess them, take industry views, and intervene before they take effect if it sees a competition problem.
What the Openreach FTTP pricing notification does
The notification triggers a review, not an approval. Ofcom does not sign off Openreach FTTP pricing. It assesses whether the offers are consistent with the non-discrimination condition and whether they would foreclose competition by leaving an equally efficient rival unable to match them. If Ofcom raises no concern, the offers take effect on 1 October 2026 without any positive decision being made.
The offers reach further than residential broadband. Alongside the full-fibre tiers, Openreach has notified changes to its Ethernet and leased-line products, including migration incentives for customers moving off legacy platforms onto Ethernet Access Direct. That sweeps in the enterprise, mobile-backhaul and data-centre buyers who sit behind the retail broadband market, and it widens the set of providers with a reason to respond.
The competition question is the one the altnets have raised before. Volume and commitment discounts that reward retail providers for putting new orders onto Openreach fibre lower prices for consumers and accelerate the migration off copper that is the shared aim of the framework. Openreach’s case is that this is competition on the merits. The altnets’ case is that the scale of discount is hard for a smaller network to match, so customers are won on terms a new entrant cannot replicate. The legal test sits between the two. Ofcom asks whether the offers discriminate without objective justification, or squeeze the margin available to an equally efficient competitor; the headline level of the prices is not the issue. That is the lens Ofcom applied to the Equinox offers, and the new offers will be judged the same way.
The Equinox record and what it shows
This is the fourth offer of its kind, and the altnets have not yet won the argument. Openreach’s first Equinox offer took effect in October 2021, and Ofcom decided not to intervene; CityFibre appealed that decision to the Competition Appeal Tribunal, which dismissed the appeal in July 2022. Its second offer, Equinox 2, took effect in April 2023, and Ofcom again decided not to prevent it in its Equinox 2 decision. In October 2025 Ofcom looked at a further Openreach upgrade offer and found no prima facie concern that would justify an investigation. In each case its reasoning was that the offers were likely to benefit consumers and were consistent with the non-discrimination condition. The pattern is consistent: the offers go ahead.
| Offer and start date | Ofcom’s response | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Equinox 1 (FTTP offer from October 2021) | Did not intervene (2021); CityFibre’s CAT appeal dismissed (July 2022) | In force |
| Equinox 2 (FTTP offer from April 2023) | Decided not to prevent it (2023) | In force |
| Further Openreach upgrade offer (2025) | Found no prima facie competition concern (October 2025) | In force |
| New FTTP and Ethernet offers (from 1 October 2026) | Call for Inputs open; responses by 19 June 2026 | Under review |
The reason the result keeps coming out the same way is structural, and it reflects a deliberate policy choice rather than a gap. Ofcom built the 2021 framework, and carried it into the Telecoms Access Review 2026-31, to encourage investment in fibre by giving network operators pricing freedom on the faster products. Discounts that move customers onto fibre serve that aim. An ex-ante review whose default is non-intervention, and whose framework treats fibre take-up as a goal worth protecting, sets a high bar for a competitor seeking to persuade the regulator to step in.
Implications for altnets, communications providers and Ethernet buyers
The parties with the most at stake are the alternative networks that have raised billions to build in competition with Openreach. The discounts shape the wholesale market they are trying to enter, and the pressure on altnet margins is one of the forces behind the consolidation now running through the fibre sector. The same dynamic sits underneath the local market-definition arguments in the CityFibre intervention in the nexfibre case, and it runs alongside the duct and pole access debate covered in our note on altnet physical infrastructure access.
For a communications provider buying from Openreach, the offers are an opportunity rather than a threat, and the question is whether to commit volume in exchange for the discount. For the enterprise and connectivity providers buying Ethernet, the migration incentives change the economics of moving off the legacy platforms. For all of them, the Call for Inputs is the point at which evidence counts. Ofcom’s assessment turns on replicability and the margin available to an efficient competitor, so the responses that carry weight are the ones that show, with figures, where an equally efficient rival cannot follow. A provider weighing whether and how to engage with the review will find the framing matters as much as the substance; our investigations and enforcement support page sets out how we help operators put that case.
Viewpoint
The honest reading of the Openreach FTTP pricing notification is that the review is real but the bar for intervention is high. Ofcom has declined to intervene on Equinox 1, on Equinox 2 and on the 2025 offer, and CityFibre’s tribunal challenge did not change that. Each time it found the offers likely to benefit consumers and consistent with the non-discrimination condition. The framework is built to reward fibre investment, and discounts that pull customers onto fibre and off copper run with the grain of the policy. An altnet that expects the regulator to step in is expecting a result the record does not support.
What the record also shows is where the argument can be won. The responses that get traction put hard replicability evidence in front of Ofcom: the margin an efficient competitor is left with, on the products and at the discounts actually offered. Complaints that the discounts are simply large do not move the regulator. That evidence has to be assembled in the three weeks before 19 June 2026, and the burden of producing it sits with the competitor. That allocation of effort, more than the terms of any single offer, is what keeps shaping the outcome. The point worth watching is whether Ofcom, having reset the framework for five years, treats the continuing consolidation among the networks it set out to support as a reason to look again at how that evidence is weighed.
Frequently asked questions
Does Ofcom approve Openreach’s prices?
No. Ofcom does not approve Openreach FTTP pricing. The 120-day notification triggers a review in which Ofcom decides only whether to intervene on competition grounds. If it has no concern, the offers take effect without any positive decision. The relevant test is non-discrimination and margin squeeze under the significant market power conditions, not whether the headline prices are reasonable.
What is the 120-day notification rule?
Under the Telecoms Access Review 2026-31, Openreach must notify Ofcom of new charges and commercial offers 120 days before they take effect. The period gives Ofcom time to assess the offers, gather industry views through a Call for Inputs, and intervene before the offers go live if it identifies a competition problem.
What were Equinox 1 and Equinox 2?
Equinox 1 and Equinox 2 were earlier Openreach full-fibre pricing offers, from October 2021 and April 2023, that gave retail providers lower wholesale prices for committing new orders to Openreach fibre. Ofcom decided not to prevent either offer. CityFibre appealed the first decision to the Competition Appeal Tribunal, which dismissed its appeal in July 2022.
What can providers do before 19 June 2026?
Providers can respond to Ofcom’s Call for Inputs, which closes on 19 June 2026. Because Ofcom’s assessment turns on whether an equally efficient competitor can replicate the offers, the responses that carry weight set out the margin and replicability evidence in figures rather than asserting that the discounts are simply too large.
If you are assessing how the new Openreach FTTP pricing and Ethernet offers affect your network or your wholesale position, or how to respond to Ofcom’s Call for Inputs before 19 June 2026, Bratby Law advises operators, alternative networks and connectivity providers on access regulation. Contact Rob Bratby.
