Summary

  • Ofcom's 27 October Hull decision requires access to KCOM's ducts and poles but ends the specific duty to supply new regulated dark-fibre circuits.
  • Existing regulated dark-fibre circuits get a three-year transition; automatic annual leased-line price reports end, while Ofcom retains statutory power to demand the underlying data.

In Hull, the regulator has opened the street cabinet and closed a filing cabinet. Ofcom's final 2026–31 review, published on 27 October, makes KCOM's ducts and poles available under a specific access remedy. In the same decision it withdraws the obligation to supply new regulated dark-fibre circuits and stops requiring automatic annual reports on certain leased-line prices. The rules start on 1 November.

The physical-access remedy has a clear object. A competing network can seek room in KCOM's existing infrastructure on fair and reasonable terms, without undue discrimination. Ofcom still finds KCOM to have significant market power in wholesale local access and leased lines; it retains regulated wholesale local access and active leased-line remedies. Its overview says that, in January, 80–90% of Hull premises could reach an alternative network, yet 70–80% of fixed-broadband connections still ran over KCOM. Those figures measure different things. A second fibre footprint is not a second wholesale route for every buyer.

Dark fibre is the unlit strand a purchaser equips and operates. Ofcom's remedies decision says take-up of KCOM's regulated product was extremely limited. It judges duct and pole access, alongside active leased lines, sufficient for this review period. KCOM remains free to sell dark fibre commercially; the change ends the regulatory supply duty for new requests. Circuits bought under the old obligation between 1 November 2021 and 31 October 2026 have a three-year transition. Ofcom proposed five years in December 2025 and settled on three. The public statement redacts the number of affected circuits.

The quieter withdrawal concerns information. KCOM will no longer have to send the specified annual leased-line pricing transparency reports by default. Ofcom says section 135 of the Communications Act lets it request the same data, including for price monitoring. That turns a scheduled receipt into a question the regulator must decide to ask. The power survives; the recurring evidence trail does not arrive on its own.

This is the bargain behind the final decision: more control for rivals over a physical route, less prescribed access to an unlit product, and less routine visibility into wholesale prices. A future price dispute would have to leave enough of a trace for Ofcom to call in the numbers. The decision identifies the legal switch. It supplies no post-1 November record of what rivals built or what KCOM charged under the new rules.