BT Fined GBP42 Million Over Openreach Failings

LONDON-- The U.K.'s communications regulator fined U.K. telecommunications company BT Group PLC (BT.A.LN) 42 million pounds ($52.5 million) over contract and regulatory breaches by its infrastructure business Openreach.

Ofcom found Openreach, which provides cable infrastructure for BT and other telecommunications companies, inadequately applied a process allowing it to halt the installation and reschedule delivery date of some services to its customers between 2013 and 2016.

It also found Openreach failed to compensate customers fully after they successfully appealed against Openreach's application of the process, between 2013 and 2016.

BT said Sunday that it acknowledges Ofcom's findings and apologized for the mistakes.

The fine includes a 30% discount because BT admitted liability and agreed to compensate the affected customers. Compensation payments are currently estimated at GBP300 million BT said.

Ofcom also fined BT GBP300,000 for failure to provide accurate and complete information under the Communications Act 2003. BT said it does not wholly agree with this decision but agreed to accept it to reach a fast resolution.

"We apologize wholeheartedly for the mistakes Openreach made in the past when processing orders for a number of high-speed business connections," said Openreach chief executive Clive Selley.

Earlier this month BT reached an agreement with Ofcom that will see its infrastructure division, Openreach, becoming a legally separate company with its own board and management.

-Write to Rory Gallivan at [e-mail]; Twitter: @RoryGallivan

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 27, 2017 01:55 ET (05:55 GMT)

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