LONDON — Britain’s telecommunications regulator ordered BT on Tuesday to run its network division as a separate company within the group, to improve national broadband coverage and avoid the need for a full break-up of the firm.Rivals to Britain’s biggest telecoms group have for years accused BT of using the division to its own benefit, ploughing profits from the network into boosting BT’s broadband and television offerings — at the expense of smaller competitors, which also rely on the network.Competitors such as Sky and TalkTalk, which use Openreach infrastructure, also accuse the 170-year-old BT of underinvesting in the business, damaging competition and coverage across the country, and have called for BT to be broken up.But after a year-long investigation Ofcom ruled that instead of a full break-up, Openreach should be placed in a legally separate company, with an independent board and control over its budget, staff and customer base. Overall investment levels will be set by BT ...
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