According to Richards it was very much unlikely that BT would set an price acceptable for the rival internet service providers to access the underground duct and telegraph pole network of its. He was speaking to a Select Committee of the House of Commons.

Under the current circumstances, rival ISPs’ accessing BT’s duct and pole infrastructure is crucial for the deployment of new superfast broadband internet network in the rural areas of the United Kingdom. This is also where regulation of the market by Ofcom for making it economically viable for the rest of the ISPs to compete with BT, becomes critical.

High speed broadband rollout has been linked  to expensive traditional procedures such as digging up of roads for laying fresh cables, although the proposed method of reusing the drains, telegraph poles and existing underground cable ducts for laying superfast broadband cables looks a more economic option.

The subject was brought at the House of Commons Select Committee for the Culture department that is in charge of the broadband network of the United Kingdom, by Conervative MP for Folkestone and Hythe, Damian Collins.

To a question from Mr Collins that if Ofcom had a view on BT’s proposed pricing for charging the access to their poles and ducts, Richards answered that in spite of the commercial negotiations and trials being already in place, the watchdog was likely to regulate, since the emerging of a solution that was mutually agreeable appeared to be unlikely by the end of the month.

The key aspects for broadband shown by the report were an increase in the broadband connections by 3.9 per cent (728,000 connections) comparing the previous year, and the total broadband lines being pushed to almost 19.5 million.

Alongside, the report also showed that the market share of the retail division of BT, the telecommunications giant of the United Kingdom, BT Retail remained dominant at 27.7 per cent, showing a rise of 1.7 per cent over the fourth quarter of 2009.

Likewise, when the table showing the results of the last five quarters beginning from Quarter 4 2009, one can see the growth pattern creeping up slowly with BT Retail and the leading cable broadband provider in the country, Virgin Media.

Nevertheless, the major shift has been a move towards ‘Other’ from ‘Other DSL’. The ‘Other’ includes the local loop unbundlers. This change has been largely owing to the enabling of more exchanges by providers such as Sky and TalkTalk, via the LLU as well as shifting their customers to networks of their own away from BT Wholesale.

The regulator has announced that its proposals to the wholesale telecoms service access arm of BT, BT Openreach could pave the way for the reduction of prices for both broadband and landline phone customers.

According to many experts, the prices for broadband service in the United Kingdom were comparatively competitive, although the latest announcement is expected to lead to further reductions for the service providers that tend to take an aggressive approach for gaining market share.

This trend has been quiet apparent in the recent past as well where the prices for broadband products plunged with a growth in the competition. Moreover, it is much likely at present that at least one among the amjor internet service providers would be taking the inititative to be the first to slash prices.

Nevertheless, it is also widely perceived that with the spreading of the price reductions expected over a period of three years, the industry may not necessarily witness the benefits immediately.

On the whole, the fresh development initiated by the telecommunications watchdog will definitely make things more attractive for the service providers to boost their coverage.

In another interesting development, Broadband Genie, the broadband comparison website has also joined Ofcom in denouncing companies offering unlimited packages, which are anything but in reality.

The latest comments made against the inexplicable practice of the internet service providers has resulted from the receipt of many complaints of slashed speeds or outrageously high bills for users unwillingly exceeding their policies of fair usage.

As a matter of fact, the inadvertent consumers had done this in the belief that their packages were truly bearing unlimited internet properties.

This where the comment made by Chris Marling, Broadband Genie’s editor comes to the fore. According to him, there was no excuse for projecting a broadband internet product as unlimited through advertising, for this clearly suggested that one could download as much as he wanted, and then scripting below the times the customer was actually allowed to, in small print.

Marling also expressed his concern that while complaints regarding speed slashed were frustrating, the real consequences were faced by those that had recieved a high bill unexpectedly.

Now it is understood that the telecommunications regulator itself is seeking to check the broadband suppliers from advertising unrealistic broadband internet speeds.

It is fact that most internet service providers operating in the United Kingdom presently advertise their services as up to a certain speed. For example, 10Mbps (megabits per second), which a research by the regulator had blamed of not being received by the majority of the consumers. The results incurred from various broadband speed test also proved to be the same.

Here, the explaining of the situation to the BBC by the chief executive officer of Ofcom, Ed Richards that there existed a substantial recess between advertised speeds and the real speeds received by people in their homes, is noteworthy.

According to Mr Richards, the chances of the customers getting the advertised headline speed were fairly remote, due to which they would like to see consumers being served with clearer information that more accurately reflected the likely speeds which could be actually received by them.

It is also worth mentioning here that the latest research by Ofcom into internet speeds found that only 14 per cent of customers on the up to 20Mbps broadband services actually got speeds of more than 12Mbps, while 58 per cent were remaining content with speeds less than or equal to 6Mbps.