The UK government would oppose any attempt by Sunil Bharti Mittal to increase his stake in telecoms group BT in order to maintain sovereign control over “critical national infrastructure”, the Financial Times reported, citing sources. 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. Bharti first acquired a major stake in BT in 2024 after purchasing a 24.5% shareholding from Altice founder Patrick Drahi, becoming one of the telecom company’s key strategic investors. At the time, Bharti expressed support for BT’s leadership team and its “ambitious” transformation programme aimed at achieving long-term sustainable growth.