BT legal threat is blackmail, rival claims

THE boss of BT has been accused of ‘blackmail’ for suggesting the company could be locked in a decade of court battles if it is threatened with being broken up.

Gavin Patterson said over the weekend that any attempts by regulator Ofcom to split up the former state-owned monopoly would lead to ‘10 years of litigation’.

The extraordinarily unguarded remarks come as the regulator is considering the future of BT as part of its review of Britain’s telecoms market.

TalkTalk’s chief executive Dido Harding yesterday said Patterson’s comments were ‘blackmail’ and ‘amount to corporate bullying’. Harding said Patterson’s threat was ‘unnecessary and unrealistic to suggest that would happen’. She added: ‘I think it’s just bluster.’

She was speaking as shares in TalkTalk slipped after the broadband and TV group warned that it was facing a ‘softer’ broadband market.

TalkTalk blamed ‘higher promotional activity in the sector’, but did not break out details for customer numbers or revenues from its individual divisions.

Harding said that more customers tend to switch their providers when they moved house.

Housing transactions slowed in the run up to the general election, which put a damper on the number of people switching, she added.

But shares slipped 1.5pc to close 7p lower at 469.5p.

The company said it enjoyed 3.5pc growth in revenues over the three months, with the average customer now taking 1.6 products.

It was one of the first telecoms groups to offer so- called quad play, which includes mobile as well as internet, home phone and TV.

The launch of its SIM card-only deals has progressed well, with its share of the SIM-only market rising to 15pc, up from 11pc at the end of last year. Harding said she expects 50pc of TalkTalk’s customers to take a mobile from them in time.