Press & PR

The future of broadband development must be a collaborative process in the UK, one expert has warned.

Steve Robertson, the chief executive of BT Openreach, which is responsible for the wiring that enables internet service providers to connect customers' broadband access, made the claim speaking to the Guardian.

Now, the fractious and competitive nature of broadband provision in the UK means that one company cannot be responsible for upgrading and maintaining networks, with a new, more complex system necessary.

"If we judge ourselves on the standards that we are going to have to deliver to support this new market, now is probably the time to be saying we need to rip up the rulebook," he told the paper.

This is despite recent reports in the Financial Times that BT retail head Ian Livingston is mulling a £10 billion improvement programme, possibly to replace copper wires to homes with optical fibres.

Part of the call for debate on the future has arisen from the growth in web applications such as VoIP, with providers such as Vonage UK offering a low-cost alternative to fixed-line telephony by routing calls over an existing broadband connection.