UK communications regulator Ofcom has confirmed that BT Group business Openreach will improve its compensation process when it fails to deliver on service agreements with other communications providers.

Ofcom said that Openreach will, “Compensate all communications providers (including BT's own retail divisions) where it fails to provide and repair services according to agreed targets.”

The new rules, outlined by Ofcom, include an agreement to, “Pay compensation proactively without any need for Openreach customers to make a claim should a fault be fixed late or a line provided late,” and to “pay every time service or quality falls below the contractual threshold instead of paying out against performance stated as an 'average over time’.”

Openreach should also “continue to pay compensation each time problems persist up to a capped limit, and for local loop unbundling, pay additional levels of compensation for failure to activate 'live' lines at double the current amount.”

Ofcom's chief executive Ed Richards said that he hoped that, “The new incentives will encourage Openreach to ensure that a high quality of service is delivered to industry and ultimately consumers".

Ofcom also said out that the new measures follow concerns raised by telecoms companies that Openreach, "was not sufficiently focused on meeting the needs of all of its wholesale customers.”

Asked how promptly compensation would be paid, an Ofcom spokeswoman said that, “It will depend on the billing cycle of the product, the time and length of the problem, when the problem is resolved etc. Generally it will be as soon as possible (i.e. in the next possible billing cycle).”

The new rules will come into force from June.