UK mobile operators included in government broadband plans

Britain’s leading telecoms groups will be asked by the government to provide greater competition and innovation to the next phase of the coalition’s much criticized rural broadband rollout.

At a meeting convened by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on Oct 7, the UK mobile operators will be invited for the first time with fixed broadband providers to become involved in plans to stretch superfast broadband across almost all parts of the country by 2018. The government has set aside £250m to provide coverage to areas not supplied by its existing program, BDUK. The project, which aims to cover 90 per cent of the country by 2015, has come under fierce criticism by the government spending watchdog for a flawed and costly process that meant £530m of subsidies were likely to be won only by BT, the national telecoms incumbent.