The UK regulatory authority Ofcom has today published its Final Statement on Partial Private Circuits (PPC) Charge Control.

This concerns the wholesale charges for terminating segments of certain types leased lines (and ShDSL connections), that can be applied by SMP operators on Market 13 of the European Commission's Recommendation on Relevant Markets Susceptible to Ex-Ante Regulation.

Ofcom had previously determined "an interim wholesale price reduction, equivalent to a 7% reduction in real terms of the average annual charge" for all PPCs provided by British Telecommunications (BT) (see also a previous T-REGS news item, which addresses in detail the types of circuits concerned), but has now, following a comparative study, and following public consultation, determined formulas as follows, and which will become applicable as of 30 Sep 2004 for 4 years, i.e. until 30 Sep 2008.

Ofcom’s values of X for the PPC charge control for three separate main baskets, applicable to BT, are as follows:

- Point of Interconnection end (A) and third party end (B) equipment charges: RPI-8.9%  

- Low bandwidth (<8 Mbit/s) connection and rental and maintenance charges:  RPI-4.0%  

- High bandwidth (<155 Mbit/s) connection and rental and maintenance charges:  RPI-6.5%

In addition, Ofcom is determining sub-baskets and sub-caps, as follows:

The sub-baskets for the low and high bandwidth baskets require BT to reduce its connection charges and its rental and maintenance charges by RPI+0% in each year of the control. The equipment sub-basket requires BT to reduce the charge for each individual item of equipment by RPI-3%.

The full text of Ofcom's Final Statement can be accessed by clicking here.

For further information, please refer to the previous T-REGS news item on leased line interconnection in the UK.