Sky calls for competition inquiry into UK broadband leader BT

Sky has called for a competition inquiry into the UK's broadband market where it said BT, the market leader whose network it relied on, had an effective monopoly.

In a submission to telecoms regulator Ofcom yesterday, Sky said it believed a history of under-investment in BT's infrastructure business, Openreach, had caused problems such as network faults and long waits for the installation of new lines. The UK's telecoms network is operated and maintained by Openreach.

According to Sky, it regarded the issues it raised as sufficient for Ofcom, which itself was carrying out a review of the sector, to ask the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to conduct an inquiry into BT's Openreach division.

Rivals Sky and TalkTalk had increased their charge against BT ever since the announcement of its planned acquisition of EE , UK's biggest mobile operator, at the end of last year.

The two firms asked Ofcom to break up BT, requesting for a spin-off of Openreach.

Ofcom yesterday said, it was carrying out an overarching review of the communications market, which included questions around structure and competition.

"We welcome evidence and analysis from all parties to help inform that work, and we will publish an update later in the summer," a spokeswoman said.

Sky submitted to Ofcom yesterday that it believed a history of under-investment in BT's infrastructure business, Openreach, had led to problems such as network faults and long waits for new lines to be installed.

Sky's chief strategy officer, Mai Fyfield said that the media giant was particularly fed up with the infrastructure wing of BT's Openreach, saying,

"We are drawing attention to the problems in broadband because they are important to the economy as a whole," Fyfield said.

"They affect competition between providers and have a direct impact on consumers and small businesses, resulting in inconvenience, dissatisfaction and loss of productivity," theregister.co.uk reported.

However, in a response this morning, BT accused Sky of "selective spin". A spokesman of the one-time state monopoly said, "They claim that Openreach investment is down, yet it is up. They can only substantiate their claim by ignoring the billions of pounds we have pumped into fibre broadband.

"They also make claims about customer service while failing to acknowledge that Openreach has passed all sixty of the service targets it was set by Ofcom."