BT accused of monopolising broadband

broadband market in the UK, TechWatch reports.

Virgin Media has been making disapproving noises about how the government's UK broadband pot of cash seems to be destined entirely for BT's coffers.

A total of £980 million has been earmarked to improve Britain's broadband network, upgrading old copper wires to fibre, including £530 million during this Parliament, which will be spent by local councils to ensure every household gets a basic 2Mbps connection, The Guardian writes.

Rivals have complained that this money is likely to go to BT. Japanese group Fujitsu and BT are the only two companies on the list competing for contracts with the 35 councils that have signed up to a framework agreement being run by the government's Broadband Development UK (BDUK) team. Nine councils are running their own bidding processes, and BT has snapped up both of the contracts awarded so far from this second pool.

Perhaps BT is in line for the majority of the government's broadband cash, which may not seem quite right, but accusing the firm of having a monopoly on fibre seems a little odd considering that Virgin Media isn't exactly a slouch when it comes to its super-fast rollout, TechWatch continues.

In fact, earlier this month, BT announced that it has hooked up 10 million premises in the UK to fibre - but Virgin is ahead of the company, with its rollout hitting the 10 million mark back in February, which hardly indicates that BT is monopolising the super-fast broadband arena.