BARCELONA, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Britain's BT said itwould increase investment in superfast broadband, including morefibre to the home, if regulator Ofcom decides against forcing abreak-up of the company.
Ofcom is examining whether BT's networks arm Openreachshould remain part of the group, as part of a larger review ofthe British telecoms market. It will announce its findings onThursday.
"There's a significant investment that we are ready to makenow in the next generation of technology, more fibre to thepremise, G.fast (and) fibre to the cabinet," Chief ExecutiveGavin Patterson said at the Mobile World Congress on Tuesday.
"That's a big decision, we are ready to make it if we getsome regulatory certainty coming out of the Ofcom review."
Openreach, which sells capacity wholesale to rivals likeTalkTalk, Sky and Vodafone, is managedat arm's length, but critics say the structure allows BT toabuse its market position and has hampered investment.
Vodafone Chief Executive Vittorio Colao made a last-minuteappeal to regulators to either split off Openreach or take atougher line on network quality and prices on Monday.
In September, BT pledged to increase the speed and qualityof its network, a plan that hinged on new technology calledG.fast that squeezed faster speeds from copper connections,rather than fibre all the way to the premises.
Ofcom's Chief Executive Sharon White said in December thatpreserving the status quo regarding Openreach was not an option,but analysts have said they doubt she will recommend a fullbreak-up of the group.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle, editing by David Evans)