Reuters

Britain’s biggest telecoms service providers have filed a complaint to media regulator Ofcom demanding greater competition in the business broadband market, where they say BT has an effective monopoly.

The UK Competitive Telecommunications Association (UKCTA), said other companies should be allowed to lay their own cables in BT ducts and use their own equipment to control BT cables, saying it would improve service and encourage innovation.

The group, which includes firms such as Sky, EE , TalkTalk, Virgin Media and Vodafone, also said many consumers did not know who was responsible for the network when services were disrupted.

BT’s network business Openreach, which manages the national telecoms network, continues to dominate the business end of the market, 30 years after the company was privatised.

A BT spokesman said in a statement that forcing Openreach to open up access to BT ducts would increase costs and that the company was voluntarily publishing its service performance to reflect its commitment to improving service.

“The UK has a vibrant wholesale business connectivity market, with strong competition and innovation amongst a large number of providers,” he said.