BT pitches £600m plan for universal broadband
London — BT Group is proposing a £600m plan to bring faster internet coverage to the rural UK, to be paid for by charges to other broadband users. By 2020, the former phone monopoly’s Openreach wholesale division would build connections enabling broadband download speeds of at least 10 megabits per second for almost all of the remaining 5% of the population that does not have them, the government said. That level of service would allow a family to stream high-definition television shows and movies, video conference and surf the web simultaneously. The proposal follows months of talks between BT and the government over how to implement a universal service obligation pledged by Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservatives. UK politicians with rural constituencies in places such as the Scottish Highlands are under pressure to boost broadband service. BT’s rivals — which use its fixed network, the nation’s largest, to deliver internet and landline services — also complain it does not have...
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