Initial conclusions from the Strategic Review of Digital Communications

25 February 2016

Making communications work for everyone

In March 2015, Ofcom announced a Strategic Review of Digital Communications: the first of this kind in ten years. Following the publication of a Discussion Document in July 2015, we now set out the interim conclusions and next steps to implement our strategy.

The document also sets out how we will step back from regulation where consumers and businesses no longer need it.

The strategy focuses on five areas:

  • the guarantee of universal broadband availability at a sufficient speed to meet modern consumer needs;
  • support for investment and innovation in ultrafast broadband networks (such as fibre to homes or businesses) by giving BT's competitors improved access to its infrastructure;
  • improvements in the quality of service delivered by the whole of the telecoms industry, including Openreach, BT’s access network division;
  • increased independence of Openreach from BT so that it is more responsive to all of its customers; and
  • consumer empowerment so that people can understand the array of choices available to them and are able to switch to the best value deal easily.

Supporting documents

Making communications work for everyone: Initial conclusions from the Strategic Review of Digital Communications (PDF, 1.1 MB)

Strategic Review of Digital Communications - Welsh Executive Summary (PDF, 129.1 KB)

Annex 1: Summary of consultation responses (PDF, 935.4 KB)

Ofcom comment on the initial conclusions of the Strategic Review of Digital Communications (PDF, 262.8 KB)

Quality of service in telecoms - A report for Ofcom by Jigsaw (PDF, 4.9 MB)

Regulatory approaches to risky bottleneck assets: International case studies - A report for Ofcom by WIK-Consult (PDF, 1.8 MB)