PROFESSOR Peter Cochrane, head of research and chief technologist at BT, has resigned after 38 years with the telecoms company to devote himself to his own technology start-up.

Moving on: Peter Cochrane

The 54-year-old, who is a regular columnist for dotcom.telegraph, said: "I have achieved all that I can inside the company and for the company. You cannot work for BT and run your own company at the same time. There are too many corporate constraints inside BT. I have to be free of those."

He leaves BT to spend more time with ConceptLabs, a technology research company which he founded in Silicon Valley two years ago with a number of people from Apple Computer. He plans to set up a laboratory in Ipswich after he has raised at least $40m (£29m).

His departure will be a serious blow for BT, particularly after last week's claim that the company is driving innovation with the re-launch of its incubator Brightstar.

Mr Cochrane suggested that BT should have been more radical with its recent restructuring plan, which will involve floating minority stakes in some of its businesses on the stock market.

He said: "There is little doubt that BT has to break itself up into smaller units. They must be agile, pro-active and independent of the whole."