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UK: BT boss on Ofcom “I don’t think they are trying to break the company up”

By  |  December 4, 2016

BT has played down damning action by the telecoms watchdog to split up the company for failing to address competition concerns.

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    Chairman Sir Mike Rake has insisted that Ofcom is not trying to break-up the telecoms firm, just days after the regulator said it was pushing forward with plans to legally separate its Openreach broadband infrastructure division.

    Rake denied that Ofcom was calling for a split, saying it was “enhanced functional separation”, even after Ofcom slammed the company’s voluntary measures so far as not enough, and said it would start proceedings with the European Commission to enforce a split.

    “What we’re negotiating with Ofcom is not necessarily a structural separation of Ofcom, it’s more of what’s called enhanced functional separation. We are committed to creating an independent board that will run Openreach, with an independent chairman, independent directors, that will run and invest in the networks, which will have more freedom on capital and operating expense than the commercial arm,” said Rake, appearing on ITV’s Peston on Sunday show.

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