Ofcom will not stand in the way of BT's broadband plans

Telecoms regulator Ofcom has announced that it will not place any obstacles in the way of British Telecom's (BT) planned £1.5 billion broadband roll-out.

BT unveiled its plans last July to construct a new super-fast broadband network, which will deliver advanced services such as videoconferencing and VoIP to ten million homes by 2012.

However, it also stipulated that this would only go ahead if Ofcom offered favourable terms which would enable it to secure a reasonable return on the investment.

Ed Richards, chief executive of Ofcom, told the Financial Times that it "will not be a barrier to this kind of investment".

"I am confident we will lay out a regulatory framework which will clearly enable companies to be free to make a return which justifies the investment they are making," he added.

It is understood that Ofcom will publish its full guidelines on the network project next month.

BT's network roll-out will mark Britain's biggest-ever investment in broadband infrastructure and could deliver a 100Mbps service when finalised.