The regulator said a number of respondents to its consultation on Openreach’s proposed FTTP pricing offer “referred to a recent interview given by Philip Jansen, the chief executive of BT Group, to the Financial Times”. That interview was published by the Financial Times on 2 February 2023.
Ofcom said, “In the interests of transparency, we have published an exchange of letters between Mr Jansen and Ofcom by way of follow-up to that article.”
Jansen wrote to Dawes to provide “some context to the FT article” and explained that he was “extremely disappointed that some of my comments have been taken out of context within this article and particularly in the headline”.
He added his comments that there would be “one national network” referred only to Openreach’s network and was “not in any way a comment about other builders”.
In addition, his comment “why do you need multiple providers?” was preceded with “if you are a CP, you would probably prefer one wholesaler with one technical solution”. This, Jansen explained, demonstrates his question was “about potential CP preference, not the broader market”.
In Dawes’ published response, she said that the article has caused Ofcom “significant concern”. Dawes added, “I would like to stress that Ofcom remains committed to our strategy of network competition, as established in the wholesale fixed telecoms market review.”
Commenting on the publication of these letters, a BT Group spokesperson said, “We have always believed that competition is good for customers, which is why we wrote to Ofcom to clarify this in February, and best evidenced by our £15bn investment and determination to build the best national network to reach 25 million premises.”