BT pledges better broadband for Britain
BT has responded to calls for the company to be divided up by announcing a plan to ensure that Britain has the best broadband possible.
Plans have been revealed by the company to ensure that 10 million properties have access to ultrafast broadband within five years, with BT ensuring that the minimum speed that can be accessed by those who cannot get fibre services will be between 5Mbps and 10 Mbps. Rival companies have called for BT to be divided up, saying that the majority of its services are currently substandard.
Rival companies, which collaborated on a letter to the Financial Times, say it is time for radical changes to the market and have called for Ofcom to carry out an investigation into BT.
In response BT said that it is planning to take a number of steps, including ensuring that it surpasses the 95% target set by the government by reaching 10 million properties with ultrafast broadband; contributing to more community schemes; improving the on-time installation rate by Openreach; and improving customer service standards by offering updates by text. The company also said that it wants to “forge an ultrafast future for Britain”.
Ofcom has recently published data on complaints about broadband providers. BT has seen fewer complaints recently; however, its complaint rate is still higher than the average for the industry. The smallest number of complaints was received by Sky, closely followed by Virgin Media; meanwhile, a rise in the number of complaints was seen by EE and TalkTalk.