BT CEO Gavin Patterson has written to his counterparts at rival broadband providers Sky, Vodafone and TalkTalk to complain that their "Fix Britain’s Internet" campaign is misleading consumers and "talking down" Britain, according to Nic Fildes of the FINANCIAL TIMES. Vodafone, Sky and TalkTalk launched a campaign earlier this month "aimed at harnessing consumer frustration with broadband speeds by asking them to complain to Ofcom." The campaign argues that BT spends "billions buying the rights to televised football rather than investing this money in Britain’s broadband infrastructure." That has tested BT’s patience, with the company complaining of "Orwellian tactics" in arguments made by its rivals. Patterson has written to TalkTalk CEO Baroness Harding, Sky CEO Jeremy Darroch and Vodafone Group CEO Vittorio Colao "to express his alarm." BT’s rivals have sent a letter back to Patterson "dismissing his concerns." Patterson accuses his rivals of "making misleading statements, with incorrect claims about Openreach’s investment compared with BT’s wider spending on Premier League and European football rights and the state of rural broadband." BT has "already forced its rivals to amend the website" after it initially claimed that BT spent "more" on sports rights than on broadband. Openreach’s capital expenditure in the last financial year "was roughly three times the level that BT spent on sports rights, according to its annual report" (FT, 8/16).
