Ofcom have applied to the European Commission to force BT to reduce the price of its high-speed line network services.

The move follows the regulators view that there is insufficient price competition within the telecommunications market, in receiving permission from the EU, Ofcom will pressure BT into reducing prices by around 8 percent over the next three years.

The price reduction would be aimed at services outside of London, where competition is stronger. The EU commission is expected to rule on the application within a month. The application comes after fears of a lack of competition with BT’s dominance of EU supported superfast broadband contracts across the UK.

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In a statement Ofcom said the move would: “help ensure the UK has a backbone of high-speed business networks capable of supporting not only companies, but also consumer services that ultimately rely on these networks, such as superfast broadband and mobile video streaming."

In response BT said: “We believe Ofcom’s decisions to regulate very high bandwidth Ethernet and optical services outside of London for the first time is mistaken", adding "We provided clear evidence to Ofcom that the market is highly competitive and that there is no market failure that needs regulatory intervention”.