Posted: 21st Aug, 2003 By: MarkJ
BT has slammed the governments plans for aggregated broadband procurement, which it feels could be hindered by the allocation of regional rather than national contracts:
Earlier this month, e-commerce minister Stephen Timms announced plans to co-ordinate the purchase of broadband services across public sector organisations (NMA 7 August). The project will be managed by nine regional aggregation bodies (RABs) along with the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs), while the Government will tender out contracts for service provision at a local level.
The scheme aims to boost broadband coverage in rural areas. But while BT claims to support the project, it rejects the idea of separate contracts within each region.
'We thought a national model, with one central place for purchasing, would have sped things up,' said a BT spokesman. 'But the Government is more focused on a competitive than a faster framework.'
BTs comments arent surprising; indeed if the government were to go with a national model somebody else would probably slap them for making an anti-competitive move. More @ NewMediaZero.