A major UK investor has called for BT to discuss a voluntary sale of Openreach , in order to limit losses from its long - running battle with rivals and regulators . It comes after more than 18 months of fierce debate in which the company’s rivals - Sky, TalkTalk and Vodafone, which rely on Openreach to serve their own broadband customers - have campaigned for Ofcom to make the network division an independent company. The move by BT Investors , which has a stake in BT worth hundreds of millions of pounds , is the first time a big City institution has publicly said that BT could voluntarily split itself . Trevor Green , BT ’s head of UK equities , said although it is clear BT do n't want the split , " that does n’t mean it ca n’t be done . " The dispute has affected BT 's share price , down nearly 20 % this year .
A major UK investor has called for BT to discuss a voluntary sale of Openreach , in order to limit losses from its long - running battle with rivals and regulators . The move by BT Investors , which has a stake in BT worth hundreds of millions of pounds , is the first time a big City institution has publicly said that BT could voluntarily split itself . Trevor Green , BT ’s head of UK equities , said although it is clear BT do n't want the split , " that does n’t mean it ca n’t be done . " The dispute has affected BT 's share price , down nearly 20 % this year .