Telecommunications giant BT is reportedly calling for the government to auction off the UK's wireless spectrum, potentially damaging its plans to extend fast and wireless broadband services to all.

The company has warned the government that it will take legal action if it goes ahead with its liberalisation plans, which were a key part of its pledge in this year's Digital Britain report.

In a "letter before action" sent to current business secretary Lord Mandelson, BT protested against plans to extend the main 3G licenses of the mobile phone networks beyond 2021 and threatened a judicial review if the proposals are implemented.

A spokesperson for the group commented: "BT has major reservations around the wireless spectrum proposals from the Independent Spectrum Broker.

"The proposal to extend current 3G licenses indefinitely represents a gift of several billion pounds from the UK taxpayer to the mobile operators and is a barrier to competition and innovation in the mobile market."

In addition, the representative went on to say that BT is calling for the contracts to be auctioned off in a way that stimulates competition in the market for both existing operators and new entrants.

BT announced in October that it intends to more than double the availability of its fastest fibre broadband service.

The group stated that it plans to deliver speeds of up to 100 megabits per second to around 2.5 million UK homes and businesses using fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP) technology, whereas the company had initially planned to roll out FTTP to approximately one million premises nationwide.

Categories: BT

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