LONDON, March 17, 2026, 20:01 GMT
BT Group shares rose about 2.5% to around 220 pence on Tuesday after Ofcom set the next five years of rules for Openreach and widened a wholesale price cap on parts of the network. 1
For investors, the timing matters. Openreach is the engine of BT’s fibre push, and the new regime settles the broad terms of what retail providers pay to use its lines for the next five years. After years of build-out, clearer regulation gives BT a firmer base for judging returns. 2
Ofcom said full-fibre broadband now reaches 78% of UK homes, up from less than a quarter five years ago, and could reach almost 29 million properties by the end of 2027. It capped the nominal price Openreach can charge operators such as Vodafone and Sky for speeds up to 80 megabits per second, a measure of broadband speed, up from 40 Mbit/s today, while leaving faster services unregulated to keep investment flowing. 2
Natalie Black, Ofcom’s group director for infrastructure and connectivity, called the review “a major milestone” and said the regulator was creating the right conditions for the rollout’s final phase. 2
Openreach said it would examine the package in depth. Mark Shurmer, its head of regulation, said competition was “more intense than ever”, while Rajiv Datta, chief executive of nexfibre, said this was “not the moment to deregulate the incumbent” — a sign BT’s fibre rivals still want oversight to stay firm. 3
BT has been arguing that the fibre build is starting to pay back. In February, it reported 571,000 net fibre additions in its third quarter, said line losses at Openreach were easing, and kept targets for cash flow of 2 billion pounds in the year to March 2027 and 3 billion by decade-end. 4
Tuesday’s move adds to a strong run. BT shares are up 36.8% over the past year and sit just below a 52-week high of 223.6 pence, according to Hargreaves Lansdown data. 5
Still, this was not a clean sweep for BT. Ofcom said Openreach retains significant market power and is not yet at the point where regulation can be removed entirely. If households are slow to leave old copper-based services, that leaves less room for the company to turn fibre investment into quicker pricing upside. 2
The new framework covers April 2026 to March 2031. What investors will watch next is take-up: Ofcom said more than half of eligible customers still have not upgraded to full fibre. 6
