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BT’s Openreach could be forced to pull a discount scheme for new fibre broadband customers, after the industry regulator said the deal was “not fair and reasonable” and could damage competition in the market.

Ofcom said the “New To Openreach” scheme, which offers discounts of up to £9.50 for up to 30 months, was targeting “aggressive” discounted pricing at new customers that rival fibre broadband providers rely on to grow.

Matching these discounts may not allow competitors to recover their costs, given the low prices they are already offering to all of their customers.

…Without sustainable competition, over time prices could rise. And firms competing to deliver affordable, ever better broadband helps underpin economic growth.

In such a competitive ?market, we don’t believe that regulation should protect poor business models and we disagree with Ofcom’s analysis.

Openreach must be able to compete, but they cannot use their significant market power to drive other networks out of the market.

In reaching our final decisions on their planned offers, we will prioritise promoting sustainable competition, which is fundamental to keeping prices low in the long term and bringing better broadband to people across the UK.