BT Pitches $788 Million Plan for Faster U.K. Rural Broadband
- Download speeds of at least 10Mbps would reach 99% by 2020
- BT would spread costs among others using its broadband network
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BT Group Plc is proposing a 600 million-pound ($788 million) plan to bring faster Internet coverage to the rural U.K., to be paid for by charges to other broadband users.
The former phone monopoly’s Openreach wholesale division by 2020 would build connections enabling broadband download speeds of at least 10 megabits per second for almost all of the remaining 5 percent of the population that doesn’t currently have them, according to a government statement on Sunday. That level of service would allow a family to stream high-definition TV shows and movies, video conference and surf the web simultaneously.