The Scotsman cartoon: Rural superfast broadband

The rural superfast broadband programme has been mismanaged by the Government and placed sole provider BT in a “quasi monopolistic position”, the chairwoman of the Commons spending watchdog has said.
The Scotsman cartoon 27/09/13The Scotsman cartoon 27/09/13
The Scotsman cartoon 27/09/13

Concerns were raised after the Government revised its initial target of 90 per cent of the UK having superfast connections by 2015 to 95 per cent by 2017.

The tender process also drew criticism when just two service providers - BT and Fujitsu - were named as approved bidders, with Fujitsu eventually dropping out.

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The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) mismanaged the project, and BT was exploiting its monopoly by restricting access to cost and roll-out information.

Illustration by Iain Green

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