BT’s chief executive Gavin Patterson has hit back at claims made by Fix Britain’s Internet, the pressure group founded by Sky, TalkTalk and Vodafone.

The group has accused BT of underinvesting in the Openreach access network and caring more about Premier League and Champions League football rights than optical fibre.

In the Telegraph, Harding has characterised BT’s splurging on football rights as an “expensive habit”, perhaps conveniently ignoring that TalkTalk TV customers can, for the first time ever, sign up for BT Sport channels.

Earlier this month BT spokespeople contradicted the claim made by Fix Britain’s Internet, telling PC Mag that Openreach investment was “roughly double” the amount spent on football rights.

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Now the top brass is getting involved, accusing the campaign of using “Orwellian tactics” to paint an “unfairly diminished view of connectivity across the UK,” according to a letter seen by the Financial Times.

Mr Patterson has written to Jeremy Darroch, chief executive of Sky, Dido Harding, chief executive of TalkTalk and Vittorio Colao, chief executive of Vodafone Group to call for a more reasonable tone to the debate. The rivals hit back in a follow-up letter, accusing BT of shying away from “meaningful change.”

“Looking ahead, we do not appear to share the same level of ambition for the digital future of this nation,” the letter said.

BT recently avoided telecoms watchdog Ofcom ruling in favour of separating Openreach from the BT Group, an outcome which Fix Britain’s Internet argues would allow for rival companies to invest in the network, rather than it just being BT calling the shots.

Instead, Ofcom has called for the creation of an independent Openreach board, which will be filled with non-BT personnel - although BT and the regulator would consult on who to hire and fire.

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