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By Aled Herbert, 28 August 2001 07:35

NEWS BT is planning an extensive multi-million pound upgrade of its local network as it attempts to provide broadcasting and broadband services through its BT Openworld business. The telco is thought to have received tenders from Alcatel, Cisco, Fujitsu, Marconi, and Motorola for the development. A source close the process told the Guardian that the planned upgrade would provide BT with one of the most advanced and comprehensive systems in Europe. The report will undoubtedly cause uproar among BT's competitors who have spent the last year involved in a quixotic battle to force the telco to open up its local exchanges to competition. Telcoms regulator Oftel last week intervened to impose new guidelines for BT's unbundling process and outlined the penalties should it fail to meet those guidelines. Oftel said that BT would be fined £10 for each day that a line was unavailable and £80 for each day that it failed to provide competitors with access to local exchanges. A spokesman for Oftel told the paper it had not been informed of BT's plans for network expansion. BT chairman Sir Christopher Bland is keen for the company to make forays into the broadcasting arena following his experience as chairman of the BBC. The company had been restricted from developing a broadcasting strategy by regulations laid down following its privatisation in 1984. However, those regulations expired this year.