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Next generation broadband essential to UK
(19-09-07) - The Government is considering public funding to pave the way for next generation broadband that would bring the UK up to speed with its European neighbours, but seems unclear as to why we really need it.
Countries such as France, Germany and Italy are already investing in fibre to the home, allowing speeds of up to 100Mb, and Stephen Timms MP, Minister for Competitiveness said that the UK risked lagging behind and “having to play catch-up” if investment wasn’t made soon.
However, his speech to the Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG) and industry experts, made it clear that while the Government was considering funding for super high speed broadband, the focus would be on providing incentives for private sector investment.
“The public sector may well have a roll in this. But the roll of the Government is in encouraging investment,” Mr Timms said, adding that a balance must be found so that “public investment does not discourage the private sector”.
Fibre to the home has traditionally been considered too expensive in the UK and it is hoped that a cheaper alternative to digging up the road will be found. In some countries that already deploy the technology, fibre has been laid inside municipal sewers, but this is unlikely to work here as our sewer systems are not municipally owned, and are also deeper.
Mr Timms noted that “our well developed satellite and terrestrial networks removed the need for high speed broadband,” which is used to deliver digital TV services in other countries.
While Mr Timms and the BSG, which published its Pipe Dreams report in April this year outlining the need for very fast broadband, hope to have 40 per cent of the UK connected to the internet via fibre by 2012, they couldn’t actually say what its value would be, as opposed to the UK’s current top speeds of 24Mb on the ADSL network.
Mr Timms said: “We don’t really know what the applications will be, but once the technology is there, the applications will follow.”
It is estimated that it would cost between £10 billion and £15 billion to upgrade the whole of the UK to a fibre network.
Mr Timms will chair a high level summit later this year to consider the circumstances that might trigger public sector intervention and the form that intervention might take.
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