Posted on July 15th, 2008 by Barry Collins

BT puts gun to Ofcom’s head

There have been plenty of times in the past where I’d have happily fired Ofcom. But it seems BT has cleverly put a gun to the regulator’s head with the announcement of its planned fibre network.

The company says it’s prepared to spend £1.5 billion to bring high-speed broadband to ten million homes by 2012, but that depends on “ “a supportive and enduring regulatory environment”. In other words, give us what we want or we’re taking our football home.

That puts Ofcom in a no-win situation: if the regulator puts it foot down, it will be accused of stalling Britain’s broadband network; if it gives BT carte blanche, the former monopoly’s rivals will be crying foul.

BT has already demanded access to Virgin’s cable network in an exclusive briefing with PC Pro. What else will it demand in its negotiations with Ofcom? Oh, to be a fly on the wall in those meetings…

Tags: broadband, BT, fibre, Ofcom

Posted in: Newsdesk

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3 Responses to “ BT puts gun to Ofcom’s head ”

Phil Says:
July 15th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
BT Should be applauded for the commitment they are making. In the current market conditions, an investment of £1.5BN on top of the £10BN they are spending on 21CN is no small figure. Of course they should be allowed to make a return on their investment. Why should they have to take all the risk and then their competitors take the benefit without any of the outlay? Good on you BT!
Yaytay Says:
July 16th, 2008 at 5:44 am
I’d agreewith Phil – IF BT were able to demonstrate any ability to deliver.
As it is the company is in such an appalling condition that it should simply be shut down, or taken into public ownership.

I could list here all the problems I’ve had with BT, but I won’t waste the space.
BT Are a Joke Says:
September 18th, 2008 at 8:34 am
I have had the misfortune of dealing with BT on a regular basis. I am an IT manager, so have to suffer their amatureism on a reuglar basis. BT don’t give a s*!t about their customers, their departments don’t communicate, and on top of all that (which is bad enough), they are consistently the most expensive and least cost effective on the market. These are the only things BT are consistent about, that is being really really bad!!

I have had one issue that is going in to it’s 24 month without resolution, and have had the most horrendous billing mistakes on the most completely basic packages. When I speak to them, they couldn’t care less and continue to mess things up. Two year olds could run a company better!! And I do not exagerate!! BT = Complete amature hour … every hour!!

The only thing BT are good at is robbing the population as and when they can. So am I suprised at this? Not in the slightest. What would I do if I were Ofcom? I would stipulate a contract like the NPfIT for the NHS and open the market up even further. And tell BT that from now on, it loses all of its preferential treatment. For example, it loses the NHS and MoD contracts that were given to it without any competition (well a charade of a competition anyway)!!

Anyone who disagrees with this obviously does not deal with BT to the level I do, as other contacts who are in similar positions to myself say exactly the same as I do. BT have had preferential treatment from the government and the regulator for long enough. It’s time they earnt their money properly, like every other truly private company!!