Fibre upgrade cost trapping Britain in cyber slow lane

London

BRITONS desperate for faster broadband are unlikely to get it from a plan to separate the country's biggest network from BT Group unless the industry tackles how to pay up to £25 billion (S$45 billion) to upgrade to fibre-optic cables.

In a bid to boost Britain's economy through Brexit, Prime Minister Theresa May's government has said it wants to address business concerns and replace an ageing copper network with the "gold standard" common across Asia and parts of Europe.

But getting anywhere near the 1Gbps speeds the government is seeking is a big task because the national network, owned and run by former telecom monopoly BT Group, is trapped…