According to a recent report in the industry journal Telappliant, in Great Britain, businesses based in rural areas that use VoIP could benefit from the proposals made in a recent Ofcom announcement.

In related news, Ofcom published new proposals for rural parts of the UK to receive better value broadband services, proposing "significant reductions in the prices that BT (News - Alert) Wholesale can charge ISPs in parts of the country where it is the sole provider of wholesale broadband services -- mainly in rural areas." 

The proposed price reductions are between 10.75 percent and 14.75 percent below inflation. As a result, Ofcom expects competition between retail ISPs, the report said, "Who will benefit from the lower wholesale prices, to lead to reductions in retail prices which will benefit consumers. The changes may also lead to better quality services by enabling ISPs to allocate more bandwidth per customer which could deliver faster broadband services." 

Ofcom estimates that this could benefit almost 12 percent of UK households or around 3 million homes and businesses, mainly in rural areas of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as the South West of England, Norfolk, Yorkshire, Cumbria, Northumberland and other areas.

In other areas of the country where there is some wholesale broadband competition delivered by local loop unbundling, Ofcom is not proposing any charge controls. Ofcom also proposes to exempt ADSL 2+ technology from charge controls. This should encourage BT Wholesale to invest in this new technology where it is cost effective to do so.