BT claims low price rise 'threatens fibre roll-out'

The planned deployment of BT's fibre network may be threatened by the small rise in prices that it can charge its competitors, the firm has warned.

BT's Openreach division charges rival telecoms firms to use its wholesale services and its prices were the subject of recent proposals by industry watchdog Ofcom.

It suggested raising the cost by up to 11 per cent from April 1st - but the telecoms giant has claimed that this does not even cover inflation.

Additionally, it would not allow it to make a "fair return" on its existing infrastructure, meaning it may reconsider upgrading its copper networks to fibre optics.

"BT invests more than anyone in the UK's communications infrastructure and so it is critical that it is able to achieve a fair rate of return on its investment," said BT Openreach chief executive Steve Robertson.

The company currently plans to spend £1.5 billion to hook up 40 per cent of the UK to the fibre network by 2012.

Point Topic's recent study on global broadband subscriptions revealed that 45 million connections use fibre technology to connect to the internet - up from 18,000 in 2002.