Next-generation access regulation is still under debate in Europe. However, BT Openreach, which favours providing wholesale bitstream access to its own next-generation fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) and fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) networks is confident the U.K. regulator Ofcom, will give it the green light.

"In essence the regulator is pretty supportive of a bitstream proposition. It can see benefits to market of most efficient way to create open access infrastructure," said George Williamson, director, strategic network design at Openreach, speaking to Total Telecom at Broadband World Forum Europe.

BT may be planning to lay the fibre networks, but wholesale bitstream access will not preclude co-investment with its service providers customers, said Williamson.

"We're developing models which allow a degree of co-investment, for example up-front payments," said Williamson. Typically a customer service provider might make an up front investment in a given fibre deployment, and in return secure a better price on wholesale access.

"It's still early days, we have a number of trials. The tricky thing is to have to agree these kind of mechanisms with Ofcom," said Williamson.

Openreach is also weighing how far it can afford to build out fibre to the premises.

"If FTTP is more attractive than FTTC, then it can be added. When [we made public] our original [fibre investment plan in the summer of 2008] the implicit assumption was 90% FTTC and 10% FTTP," said Williamson.

"What we have been doing is trying to assess how to re-use existing physical infrastructure. We are trying to improve our records on ducts.

The result may be a doubling of the ratio of FTTP to FTTC," said Williamson. "If we can get the unit cost of FTTP within £100 of FTTC it makes sense to deploy. [FTTP] has a clear proposition [for customers] and has lower opex."

However, the credit crunch has led BT Openreach to reassess its greenfield fibre-to-the-premises build-out.

When it announced a FTTH trial in Ebbsfleet in early 2007 "it was intended to be a huge new development of 10,000 homes. Since the credit crunch the ramp-up is much slower... It's no longer 240,000 new homes [in the UK] a year, it's well under 100,000;" said Williamson.

"What this

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