BT stung by broadband critics
August 16, 2016
BT CEO Gavin Patterson has written to the heads of rival broadband providers complaining about their criticism of Openreach, BT’s national network.
Reacting to the rivals concerted ‘Save British Broadband’ campaign – that encourages users to complain to regulator Ofcom – Patterson says it ““paints an unfairly diminished view of connectivity across the UK and makes a number of misleading statements”. He said Sku, TalkTalk and Vodafone were using ‘Orwellian tactics’ and ‘talking down Britain.’
The rivals campaign states: “BT spends “billions buying the rights to televised football rather than investing this money in Britain’s broadband infrastructure” and that “in rural areas, nearly half of premises can’t get speeds above 10 MB/s”. And far from backing down, they replied to Patterson’s letter: “Ofcom data shows that deployment of pure fibre in the UK is below that in Turkey, Mexico and Poland. This is a wasted opportunity which risks Britain’s future competitiveness, prosperity and quality of life.”
BT is to launch its own campaign boosting its view of its broadband performance.