News Burst: BT tells government to back off

British Telecom (quote: BT) issued a warning to the government on Wednesday as Gordon Brown joined the row over cheaper Net access. It told the Chancellor that he "should not get involved in telecoms".

BT's criticism of government interference follows a damning speech made by Brown on Wednesday evening about the state of the UK Internet market. In his speech, the Chancellor expressed concerns that BT's dominant position was putting British businesses at a disadvantage.

Brown committed to halving Internet access costs by 2002, and called for the timetable for local loop unbundling -- in which BT opens up its network to other operators -- to be speeded up.

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