BT executive calls for price regulation of US telecom networks

A BT Group Plc executive has called for the US to require its telecommunications companies to allow access to their networks at regulated prices, similar to rules in place in the UK, the Financial Times reported yesterday.

According to Bas Burger, president of the British company's Americas unit, who spoke to the newspaper, a lack of regulation had hampered competition in the US, where AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc controlled around 80 per cent of the telephone and broadband lines used by homes and businesses.

According to Burger, BT Group needed to charge customers more as it had to pay large fees to the US rivals to carry data over these wires.

He added, contracts BT and others had with the US telecoms needed to be regulated to guarantee a minimum quality of service, he said. For instance, the US companies had no specific time frame for fixing an outage that took down one of BT's networks, according to the report.

UK telecom regulator Ofcom last month rejected calls by BT to investigate alleged dominance of arch rival Sky. (See: UK telecom regulator rejects BT's calls to probe alleged dominance of Sky).