The UK government is ready to look again at a possible full split of BT and its network arm Openreach, Westminster sources told the Daily Telegraph. This follows anger at BT’s failure to commit to a large-scale fibre roll-out in the UK.
Ministers and regulators are understood to be "extremely frustrated" by Openreach's announcement that only 3 million homes will get a full fibre connection by 2020. Openreach management reportedly lobbied BT to commit to 10 million homes. The investment was announced after months of industry consultation by Openreach, and comes as much smaller infrastructure rivals such as Cityfibre make bigger plans.
Westminster sources told the paper that the Department for Culture is now preparing to revisit the question of a full split of BT as part of an ongoing review of future telecoms infrastructure. Openreach’s biggest customers, which as well as BT’s consumer business include Sky, TalkTalk and Vodafone, have been invited to weigh in on an Openreach separation again as part of the review.
