Broadband News

Tories promise 100Mb superfast broadband by 2017

Monday, 01 February 2010

By Garnet Roach garnet@consumerchoices.co.uk

The Conservatives have pledged to deliver 100Mb fibre optic broadband to the majority of the country by 2017.

Breaking up BT’s monopoly, the Tories said that private investors such as Carphone Warehouse, which owns TalkTalk Broadband (www.TalkTalk.co.uk), and Sky Broadband (www.Sky.com) would be given permission to use BT Broadband (www.BT.com) fibre optic cables to deliver superfast broadband.

And if the market did not deliver, then 3.5% of the BBC licence fee, currently used to pay for digital switchover, could be diverted to extend coverage to rural areas - rather than the 50p landline tax proposed by Labour. This could raise between £750m and £1bn on the basis of 25m TV licences, said Tory Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne.

He told the BBC One Andrew Marr Show: “The next Conservative government is going to aim to have a 100Mb broadband to a majority of the population by 2017. In the 19th century we built the railways; in the 20th century we built the motorways. In the 21st century, let's build the superfast broadband network. That will create hundreds of thousands of jobs for Britain.”

Ending BT’s monopoly on local loops to allow competitors move in with their own ducts and fibre cables, is an approach that has proved successful in countries like Singapore and South Korea.

“I think the best way to deliver this is by breaking up the British Telecom monopoly at the moment, which holds back companies such as Carphone Warehouse or Virgin,” added Osborne. “If we find the market can't do that, then use the BBC licence fee, the digital switch over money in the BBC licence fee, to get Broadband out to the rest of the country.”

However, Labour Treasury Minister Stephen Timms said: “On broadband it's not Britain but the Tories that are playing catch-up. Labour have already announced measures for rolling out broadband across the country - and the Tories have opposed the plans to make that happen.”

Michael Phillips, Broadbandchoices.co.uk product director, said: “Delivering on a promise of 100Mb broadband - which requires expensive fibre-to-the-home technology - will be very difficult, even with a BBC licence fee levy.

“However, Virgin Media already offers 50Mb broadband to over 12 million customers and has even been trialling 200Mb. BT also launched its own fibre optic broadband, BT Infinity, last week which aims to offer 40Mb broadband to four million customers by the end of the year, and some 40% of the UK by 2012.”

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