Broadband Britain Being Stifled By BT Monopoly
A coalition of influential internet service providers has warned that the continued growth of Britain’s broadband networks is being stifled by BT’s continuing monopoly over key technologies.
The Broadband Industry Group, which boasts members such as Cable & Wireless, Energis and Tiscali, wrote an open letter to the Financial Times at the end of last week setting out the problems caused by BT’s continued ownership of large portions of the UK’s internet infrastructure.
The letter stated: “The broadband market in the UK remains stifled by a lack of competition at the wholesale level where BT retains a monopolistic 99% share in DSL, the leading technology. Unless a genuinely competitive market arises, alternative broadband providers, consumers, businesses and the UK economy as a whole will miss out on the benefits of broadband.”
The group wrote primarily in response to comments made by E-Commerce Minister, Stephen Timms, who said that he believed tougher targets were required to encourage businesses to take up broadband access and drive the development of new internet services.
The Broadband Industry Group stated that, while it agrees with the minister, “success cannot simply be judged on coverage alone. Future development of innovative services requires increased competition from a range of providers”, something which the group sees as increasingly difficult under BT’s dominance of corporate internet access and infrastructure.
The group has challenged industry watchdog Ofcom to do more to liberate the internet industry and “enable true competition and the development of innovative and competitive broadband across the UK.” The move follows several attempts by the big three broadband operators to increase take up of high speed internet in the UK.
Earlier this month NTL announced a reduction in losses and an increase in broadband enabled homes following the announcement that the company had signed up 1 million broadband customers. BT and Telewest have also launched cut price broadband packages, both below the £20 per month price barrier, while BT has also ventured into streaming media and internet telephony with its raft of new features available exclusively to broadband customers (see BT Pushes Broadband With Feature Rich Packages).
The latest figures from Continental Research predict broadband internet will have penetrated almost 5 million UK homes by the end of this year. The Spring 2004 Internet Report shows that the promotion of broadband services by telecoms companies is paying off, with take-up increasing from just 750,000 two years ago to the current figure of 3.6 million (see Broadband To Be In Five Million Homes By Year-End).
Broadband Industry Group: 07795 291 484 www.bigfuture.org
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