The success of local loop unbundling (LLU) and wholesale line rental (WLR) brought about by the separation of Openreach from BT has lead Ofcom to believe that the fixed-line telephony market is competitive and BT no longer have significant market power (SMP). Ofcom therefore believes it appropriate to remove controls from BT in this market which should help improve BT's competitiveness. It will allow BT retail to start offering bundles including line rental with its other products such as broadband and its TV service, BT Vision.
ISDN2 is still deemed to be largely controlled by BT and Ofcom has not changed it's SMP opinion on this, however it does believe that Wholesale remedies in this market will be sufficient to maintain competition.
Ofcom didn't just evaluate the market for BT, it also looked at the other incumbent, KCOM, who operate the network in Hull. Here, Ofcom did not believe that market conditions had altered substantially for it to adjust its SMP ruling.
The Ofcom statement and the full report can be found here.
I love it that this event has attracted no comment in two days.
Perhaps a very minimal Broadband service could be defined and offered with the next rental hike for everone.