BT praise for Digital Britain

BT's chief executive officer Ian Livingston has welcomed the government's 'Digital Britain' report calling it "ambitious" and "describing a strong vision for the years ahead."

He said: "BT agrees with the government that next generation broadband will be important to the country's economic future. We will continue to play a leading role in strengthening the UK's leadership in communications."

Livingston added: "It is important that the government finds ways to encourage investment in superfast broadband, particularly in the parts of the country where the economics currently do not work."

Acknowledging that the report recognises this, Livingston said: "Lord Carter should be praised for offering a creative solution."

Livingston also noted that: "BT is alone in having an open network that hundreds of other companies can and do access, so we are well placed to be at the heart of the government's plans."

Argued Livingston: "Funding should only be available to companies that are prepared to open their networks to others to ensure the UK retains the most competitive telecoms sector in the world,"

"The principles announced today are welcome, it's important now that they are implemented effectively."

Further reaction from BT

We share Lord Carter and the government's desire to get fast broadband to as many people as possible. This is critical to the UK's future as a knowledge-based society.
We think he has delivered some creative solutions both for extending 2Mb/s services by 2012 and particularly for extending the reach of fibre-based broadband by 2017.
The recognition that public funding is required is welcome and shows a new pragmatism at the heart of government.
Lord Carter himself has said that other countries have either pumped in billions of public money or given their incumbents a regulatory holiday in order to extend super fast broadband coverage.
We have never asked for the latter. This is because we believe strongly in open networks. This belief does have its downside however as it makes the business case for rolling out fibre trickier than it would be otherwise.
The report seems to recognise this and the 50p levy could be a creative solution to what is a complex challenge. Lord Carter should be applauded for showing such initiative and creativity.
BT will have to see the details but, given comments by Lord Carter about eligible networks needing to be open, we obviously feel in a strong place given ours is the only truly open network in the UK.