Commenting on the news BT has been ordered to legally split from its Openreach division, Mark Skilton, a Professor of Practice at Warwick Business School and an expert on telecoms and the Internet of Things, has made the following statement:
"The BT Group argue they are investing in this critical national infrastructure powering the digital economy for all industries, yet questions over how to build this faster and with more coverage across the nation have been part of a constant battle.
"The Internet of Things, super fast broadband, 5G and other types of networks may be better delivered and served with having multiple large scale companies in a more devolved network.
"This requires a huge investment to build fibre networks, but also a willingness to experiment and develop a full range of services that digitise and enable multiple networks and providers to give not just access but also high performing data and network speeds.
"Separating the BT and Openreach monopoly will in my view help this move towards a faster network of providers and hence one that is not driven at the speed of one large operator's priorities. This has counter arguments of reliability and avoiding vested interests in zoning in on specific cities and regions for preferential treatment. But with Ofcom and government leadership now so critical in the Brexit era we now find ourselves in, we need to think faster and more nationally and internationally in how we connect to the wider world.
"The telecoms network has to be the network of the future and this needs big investment from many parties not just the preserve of one."
