MPs criticise BT’s mishandled rural broadband roll out
MPs have rounded on the government and BT over their handling of a rural broadband initiative, claiming that insufficient detail about the costs, coverage and speed of the system has been provided.
The government will have doled out £490m in grants across the UK to subsidise rural broadband infrastructure, cash which must then be matched by local authorities with additional funds paid by the chosen contractor (who can recoup costs through customer fees).
A committee of MPs warn that taxpayers face being ‘ripped off’ by this process however as BT has thus far monopolised the tendering process, winning all 26 bids which have thus far taken place.
Rebutting the complaints BT responded: “It is... frustrating that the committee continues to try and pick holes in the programme.
"BT is delivering value for money and the National Audit Office acknowledged there are 'robust' processes in place to ensure that. As for maps, most councils have published coverage maps with our support. More detailed data will be released by them in due course once surveys have been completed and we know for sure that we are going to an area."
The government is aiming to ensure that all premises can attain download speeds of at least two megabits per second - with 90 per cent able to download at 20Mbps.