UK to block Sunil Bharti Mittal’s BT stake push over national security concerns

Calcutta: The UK government would oppose any attempt from Sunil Bharti Mittal to increase his stake in telecom group British Telecom (BT), people familiar with the matter have said, citing the need to maintain sovereign control over “critical national infrastructure”, according to a Financial Times report.

The stance will limit the billionaire’s influence over BT, whose broadband infrastructure arm Openreach provides fibre broadband to more than 22 million homes in Britain.