In March 2024 Ofcom announced the process that will culminate in the Telecoms Access Review 2026-2031, aka the TAR, publishing their introductory document for the TAR, setting out their approach. This review is the successor to the Wholesale Fixed Telecoms Market Review (WFTMR) 2021-2026, and will be crucially important in shaping the regulatory landscape for INCA members and others involved the UK telecoms industry.
INCA began working on our strategy for the TAR in the summer of 2023, and a lot of work has since been carried out by INCA, working very closely with member organisations, Ofcom, other industry bodies, and organisations across the telecoms industry, to help shape the TAR such that it can take full account of the role and importance of the Altnet sector.
In recognition of the fact that the work required to provide detailed evidence-backed inputs and arguments to support Ofcom's work in preparing for and carrying out the review will be extensive, INCA has successfully raised significant funding from member organisations, and we are grateful for their generous support. Other organisations that might wish to engage with this important programme and support our TAR work are very welcome to engage with us and become a co-contributor to the programme. Please contact our CEO Malcolm Corbett (malcolm.corbett@inca.coop) to discuss your involvement.
We've established a TAR Steering Group which is meeting on a regular basis, and work is progressing at pace.
So far we have produced a number of submissions, as follows:
- Defining relevant markets for the TAR (May 1 2024)
- Supplementary market definitions submission (May 31 2024)
- Structure of Fibre Cost Model (June 2024)
- Assumptions for Fibre Cost Model (July 2024)
- Short term requirements for improvements to the PIA remedy under the WFTMR (July 2024)
- Submission on PIA costing (July 2024)
- PIA Requirements (July 2024)
- Exchange Closure Issues (July 2024)
- PIA Pricing (July 2024)
- VULA (Virtual Unbundled Local Access) Pricing (July 2024)
- Inter-exchange Connectivity, Leased Lines, and Ancillary Services Market Review (July 2024)
- Strengthening infrastructure competition by addressing barriers to exapnsion (August 2024)
This list of submissions and reports will be maintained as work progresses.
Other matters that we are addressing within this programme of work include:
- SMP
- Charge controls and discounts
- PIA product equivalence
- Wider market and competition issues
- Exchange closures
- Copper retirement
- PSTN switch-off
- Downstream competition