BT fined record 42 mln stg for business-line installation errors

LONDON, March 27 (Reuters) - Britain's BT has been fined a record 42 million pounds ($53 million) by the regulator for failing to install high-speed lines for businesses fast enough, in an error that is likely to cost the company around 300 million pounds in compensation.

The company, which runs Britain's major telecoms network, misused the terms of its contracts to reduce compensation payments to other providers for failing to deliver Ethernet services on time between January 2013 and December 2014, regulator Ofcom said on Monday.

BT's Chief Executive Gavin Patterson said the company took the issue very seriously, and had put in place measures, controls and people to prevent it happening again.

($1 = 0.7981 pounds) (Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Kate Holton)