Listening to the guardian technology podcast yesterday I learnt that BT has a competitve advantage in the fibre broadband market, it comes about because BT only have to £20 per km of fibre where as their competitors have to pay £2,000 per km then £20 per home connected.
This means that BT is going to be in no rush to roll out fibre, because no one else can compete with them. How can this be the case? Well it is complicated in that it is somehow tied up in business rates, and although it seems unfair no politician wants to touch the law because business rates are complex and no one wants to open the can of worms.
You can read more about the issue on the Guardian website here http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/oct/04/bt-broadband I for one will be writing to my MP urging him to do something about it.