Issues in the mass market deployment of broadband: An analysis of British Telecommunications’ (BT) strategy

This article examines the changing pattern for strategic deployment of broadband by BT. BT’s initial attempts to deploy the technology through its ISP failed due to key commercial and technological weaknesses. Thereafter BT shifted to a more strategically defensive strategy based on securing its position of dominance on the UK local access market. This strategy proved considerably more successful. This strategy to deploy a mass market broadband created an evident industrial/corporate strategy interface as BT’s corporate objectives aligned with public policy objectives of creating a universally accessible broadband product. The result of this interface has been to place BT at the heart of the “Broadband Britain” programme – a position that contravenes the original intentions of the UK Government.