Virgin Media boss warns of damage to fibre broadband competition

Virgin Media chief executive Neil Berkett has expressed concern that competition in the fibre optic broadband market could be damaged by government funding.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Mr Berkett warned against the Conservative-led coalition awarding too much public money to BT, arguing this would make the telecoms giant the only owner of large-scale super-fast broadband infrastructure in rural areas.

"That will not, in my view, stimulate the growth and development in a way which you would if you had two infrastructure players," he remarked.

Mr Berkett also said he has doubts as to whether BT and its rival providers will be able to reach an agreement on access to BT's network of ducts and poles, which can be used to lay fibre broadband cables.

Along with TalkTalk, Virgin Media has signed up to collaborate with Fujitsu on a rural fibre broadband network to rival BT's infrastructure.

The partners are planning to bring speeds of up to 1Gbps to five million homes.