Brussels, 03/06/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 2 June, the European Commission gave the go-ahead to the proposal of UK telecoms regulator Ofcom to oblige telecoms operator BT to provide “virtual” access to its optical fibre infrastructure to alternative operators. The Commission agreed to take account of the specific circumstances of the situations but called on Ofcom to move as quickly as possible to physical unbundling. The Commission is of the view that the proposal will bring the same benefits as “physical” unbundling and that the Ofcom proposal will maintain competition on UK broadband markets following the roll-out of next generation access (NGA) networks by allowing alternative operators to offer competitive broadband services on these networks. However, the Commission asked the UK regulator to impose full unbundling of the BT fibre network as soon as technically and economically possible. “In this specific instance, virtual unbundling seems the best option to safeguard competition and enable consumers to benefit from a wider range of services provided over next generation fibre infrastructure. However, this interim solution is not a long term alternative to physical fibre unbundling, which should be imposed as soon as possible,” said Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes. (I.L./transl.rt)