Posted: 07th Mar, 2005 By: MarkJ
Speaking to the Trade and Industry Select Committee (TISC) tomorrow, Energis's CE John Pluthero is expected to re-air his belief that BT should be split up:
Pluthero told The Sunday Times: "There's this fundamental commercial conflict that we ask BT to manage today, which is nonsense. On the one hand, BT is in the market selling to customers. On the other hand, it is supposed to be providing its wholesale customers like us (BT's rivals) with competitive deals. If it does that second job well, it is selling its own shareholders down the river."
He's also critical of the compromise option currently being pursued by Ofcom. The issue idea of equivalence (giving companies equal access to BT's products) may be good on paper but he believes it can only ever be a way of "managing the problem". Taking an axe to BT, on the other hand, would solve BT's conflict of interest in a single stroke.BTs Ben Verwaayen will also be attending and is expect to reiterate the importance of an undivided operator.
Despite all the fuss, one way or the other, BT will probably have to adapt to a situation where the two sides of its coin are increasingly separated by red tape. More @
The Register.