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BIG has a pop at BT dominance

Report sticks the boot in

The Broadband Industry Group (BIG) reckons Ofcom's got a tough job ahead knocking BT down to size and opening up the UK's telecoms market to competition. In a report published today BIG - made up of Cable & Wireless, Centrica, Energis, Wanadoo, Tiscali and Brightview - concludes that BT "maintains an alarming 90 per cent stranglehold on the non-cable wholesale broadband market - despite intervention from the new regulator Ofcom and constant pressure from the industry".

Although there is little new in the report, it does maintain pressure on the regulator to continue to work to loosen BT's grip on the telecoms market and promote real competition. And while BIG welcomes Ofcom's recent strategic review aimed at opening up the market to competition, it reckons the "real spade work lies ahead".

Said a BIG spokesman: "We don't have the luxury of time. Ofcom's intention to revive LLU (local loop unbundling) and the Strategic Review of Telecoms offer the prospect of increased competition in the long term. But in the short term conditions remain tough and we have to resolve the remaining problems with price and process. A competitive market has the potential to provide choice and innovation. Ultimately, a market where BT dominates is a market where consumers and businesses lose out." ®

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