Re: Interference on the line
There's no law against commercial interference with the regulators.
Given that the people making the decisions come from the telco industry and go back to the telco industry, they know that side their toast is buttered on - and what happens to regulators who displease their future employers.
Openreach needs to be completely cleaved off from BT(*). Once a fully independent lines company, empowered (and required) to sell duct space to 3rd parties, things would change rapidly, as they have elsewhere(**)
(*) Completely separate shares, board of directors, offices, administration and CEO. Any favouritism shown to any player gets heavy punishment.
(**) New Zealand has changed from a posterchild implementation of how not to privatise your telco, to a place with vibrant competition in the 3 years since they split the incumbent telco from its lines operations - as a condition of getting rural broadband installation contracts. UK.gov had the same opportunity and blew it.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
