BT: Super-fast broadband needs competition

Super-fast broadband must allow competition and let investing companies make a "reasonable return", according to the chief executive of BT.

Ian Livingstone, writing in the Daily Telegraph, claims that his company is different from most incumbents in the telecoms business because "[it] is of the view that the market, rather than government, is best placed to build the fibre infrastructure" which will be needed for super-fast connections.

He claims that many countries in the EU and beyond "are hostage to their national incumbents' argument that you can't have both investment and competition", before adding that Britain currently has the most competitive broadband market in the world.

Mr Livingstone believes that competition is the best way to replace the country's copper networks with fibre-based technologies.

He said: "The role of regulation must be to ensure that the companies which invest in this critical infrastructure have the prospect of making a reasonable return and that a genuinely competitive market is preserved."

In August, the director of technology at the GSM Association (GSMA), Dan Warren, claimed that mobile broadband will reach speeds of 100Mbps before BT's fixed-line infrastructure is complete.