Britain’s broadband is ‘inexcusably bad’

Millions are stuck in the slow lane, says Ofcom

THE head of the telecoms watchdog has accused BT of ‘complacency’ and urged it to spend more on the nation’s broadband network.

In yet another headache for embattled BT chief executive Gavin Patterson, Ofcom boss Sharon White called on the firm to expand its planned rollout of cutting-edge broadband cables. The 50-year-old regulator ( pictured) also said it was ‘inexcusable’ millions of people in the UK still did not even have a standard internet connection. The comments pile further pressure on BT and its boss as he deals with an accounting scandal in Italy, a slump in the share price, a £14bn black hole in the company pension scheme and customers deserting its TV service.

Openreach, BT’s cables arm, has promised fibre-optic broadband to 3m homes and businesses by the end of 2020. This would give them more reliable connections and much faster download speeds than Victorian-era copper wires used by most buildings. And the rollout could reach 10m premises by the mid-2020s if there was proven demand, less red tape and Openreach was given more freedom on prices, the firm said. But Ofcom says fibre cables should be standard in the future and White urged Openreach to commit to a bigger scheme.

She said current plans would mean just 25pc of premises in the UK had fibre connections by 2025 – far fewer than other European countries. In Portugal and Spain there is already 80pc coverage.

Yesterday White told the Mail: ‘Why should we be any different from Spain or Portugal? Openreach have made a good start but I would like them to set a much more ambitious target.

‘It is inexcusable that millions still do not have access to a decent broadband connection.’

An Openreach spokesman last night insisted it planned to roll out fibre connections to ‘significantly beyond 3m premises, to the majority of the UK’.

But he added: ‘ Like any business, we need an investment case that stacks up.’

A LEGAL challenge against an auction of mobile airwaves was last night dismissed by the Court of Appeal. Mobile operator Three had argued for tougher restrictions on how many bigger rival EE could bid for. But its case was thrown out.