BT shares up as telecoms giant avoids break-up

Britain’s biggest telecoms operator BT avoided being broken up when the regulator proposed putting the firm’s network into a legally separate company within the wider group in a bid to improve broadband coverage.

Analysts said the proposals were unlikely to increase costs or damage profits at BT in the short term and its shares rose 4% yesterday.

Britain currently ranks favourably with its European peers in terms of broadband speeds and costs, but with much of the infrastructure based on BT’s copper network, the regulator fears the world’s fifth-largest economy will fall behind unless it upgrades to fibre.