Earlier this week, Downing Street responded to an e-petition which called for the Government to take a leaf out of the Japanese book by financially backing the big telcos in order to roll out a nationwide fibre network. The petition said that “the UK will lag behind in broadband speed if no fibre network isn’t put in place,” attracted just under 1,000 signatures and elicited this response from Number Ten:
“Thank you for the e-petition asking the Government to give BT Government incentive to provide fibre to every UK home. On the 22 February the Government announced a review targeted at areas within the scope of the Government’s influence, and responsibility with the aim of assisting the creation of market conditions that would lead to the a more attractive investment environment for the private sector. This review is due to report in the Autumn.
To date BT’s and other’s investment in broadband technology has meant that over 99% of all businesses and households have access to broadband - the highest ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) availability of all the G8 countries. As a result we have a very competitive market, which has benefited the consumer through increased choice and some of the lowest prices in Europe. This has been achieved by opening up the previous monopoly to introduce more competition. BT alone can no longer provide broadband to the exclusion of other providers.
Based on the last Broadband wholesale review carried out in 2003/2004, BT and Kingston Communications in the Hull area are currently obliged to provide wholesale broadband access products to other ISPs (Internet Service Provider), which in turn allows them to offer competing retail services. These obligations were necessary to ensure competition for consumers by ensuring that ISPs can access wholesale broadband services to allow them to develop their own competitive retail offerings. Both BT and Kingston meet the requirement and offer a range of wholesale broadband products to meet the needs of ISPs. The market is open to any ISP who wants to take the commercial decision to offer broadband via the incumbents’ network.”
Whilst the response contained a number of home truths, the UK does have the highest availability of ADSL broadband throughout the G8 (although that’s largely due to the fact that the UK is significantly smaller than say, the US or Russia) and some of the lowest prices in Europe, the response neatly avoided giving any concrete response to the question, other than that we should all wait until the Autumn to find out if any kind of government assistance will be given.
We’ve received a number of emails from readers who say they’d happily pay out more in taxes if the government could guarantee FttH to UK homes by a set date, say 2012. Gordon, are you listening?
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winston smith said on 31 Mar 2008 at 8:17 am #
Typical governemtn responce, putting a positive spin on a bad situation. You can’t polish a poo, unless you’re Gordon Brown!