BT charges to rivals increase

BT is to increase the rate it charges rivals for an unbundled line.

This follows the decision by the regulator Ofcom to allow the wholesale prices to increase so that the price of maintenance, investment and inflation are covered.

This decision allows BT to increase its wholesale price for the unbundled line from £81.69 to £86.40, allowing BT Openreach to earn a higher return on the work that it is doing on the broadband network.

Although this is a fairly large increase in proportion to the overall cost, it is estimated that this amount could bring in between £25 million and £30 million in extra revenues, and the news caused the price of BT shares have increased by 2.1p finishing up at 88.4p.