UK gov superfast broadband summit decides… erm… nothing
Don’t hold your breath
Extract from an article originally published in The Register, 27th November 2007
The Whitehall summit on next generation broadband on 26th November 2007 concluded with government, regulators and industry firmly agreeing that they definitely need to start thinking around what to do about the UK’s creaking internet infrastructure at some unspecified point in the future (perhaps).
The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) meeting, held behind closed doors, was chaired by the competitiveness minister Stephen Timms. According to a statement today, the “emerging consensus [on next generation broadband]… included the need to collaborate across industry, government and the public sector”. Wowzer.
The papers were full of stories about the UK falling behind on broadband yesterday, in anticipation of a major leap forward for the Knowledge Economy™.
But no such luck. “It was a constructive and open discussion which anticipated the demand for reliably faster and more symmetrical broadband. It is my job to bring people together so that this need can be met,” proud host Timms gushed.
He promised to get to work on something called a “vision statement” for next generation broadband. A vision statement is like a mission statement, only served up to the public as well as within an organisation. They’re equally nebulous and specifically designed to contain no policy information whatsoever.
Ofcom chief Ed Richards made it clear that the regulator won’t be intervening to encourage early investment. He said: “Ofcom’s role is to deliver a robust regulatory framework allowing industry to deploy when there is a clear business case for doing so.”
So like we said, don’t hold your breath. ®
Ian Roberts’ comment on this article:
Faster and more symmetrical broadband is exactly what is required, and radio has a significant role to play in the delivery of high speed symmetrical broadband to UK plc. The symmetrical element is the edge that radio has over DSL type technologies. Our own high speed symmetrical broadband network for business is also independent of BT Openreach, so for big business, it also provides a genuinely cost effective resilient data connection.
As for Ofcom, they are right, there needs to be a business case. In a competitive market, if the Government wants to provide subsidy, then it must offer it to all Broadband operators to bring down costs for all technology types and solutions, not just one.