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CEO Dave Dyson calls on Ofcom to take bold decision on BT/Openreach split.
3UK this week joined the ‘Fix Britain’s Internet’ campaign, which is lobbying telco regulator Ofcom for a full separation of BT and its infrastructure unit Openreach.
The campaign was launched in late July by Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone, and the Federation of Communication Services (FCS).
Fix Britain’s Internet urges consumers to respond to Ofcom’s consultation regarding its plan to make Openreach more independent from its parent, a plan that in its current form stops short of completely splitting the two. So far, 75,000 people have responded.
"The continued success of the mobile Internet relies on a competitive broadband infrastructure market that provides choice and independence. However, the current system does not deliver this," said 3UK, in a statement on Monday.
The mobile operator claimed that structurally separating BT and Openreach represents the only measure that will "deliver genuine competition and prevent BT from favouring itself."
BT recently responded to the campaign, teaming up with cableco Virgin Media to defend Openreach’s track record of investing in infrastructure, and accusing Fix Britain’s Internet of depicting an unfairly diminished view of connectivity in Britain.
Meanwhile, 3UK CEO Dave Dyson doesn’t want Ofcom to stop at splitting up BT and Openreach. He also wants the watchdog to stop companies like BT from hoarding mobile spectrum, and to make it easier for customers to switch provider.
"Consumers want genuine choice and it is vital they make this clear to Ofcom, so it can make bold decisions on issues like Openreach, spectrum and switching in the face of huge pressure from big incumbents to keep the status quo," he said.
