Broadband for all by 2012: Industry to foot the bill RSS

The government wants everyone in the UK to be able to enjoy and make use of basic broadband services by 2012, either through a landline, cable connection, mobile network or a wireless connection, but it appears that the comms industry will be left to foot the bill themselves.

As reported in the Guardian, Lord Carter hinted at his vision for the future of the country’s Broadband infrastructure, in a speech given yesterday to MPs and industry bods.

“Today we are way beyond the view that broadband is a niche product, it is an enabling and transformational service and therefore we have to look at how we can universalise it,” he said. “We have to ensure that fairness and access for all is more than a soundbite in a manifesto.”

Lord Carter, former head of Ofcom, is expected to release BT from its universal service obligation, which sees the company obliged to provide connections to anyone in the UK who asks for it. BT have consistently argues that the USO gives it’s competitors an unfair advantage in the market place, as all of the investment and planning, time and labour that goes into place is solely undertaken by BT, with competitors then freely able to purchase connections through the LLU program after all the hard work has been done.

It is thought that in order for the current USO to be abolished, BT and other leading ISPs will have to work out a co-operative investment strategy which will see every major player in the industry bringing something to the table in order to achieve the government’s wishes of setting up a connection in every home by 2012.

Carter is also expected to work out a deal with leading mobile networks which will see residents able to get broadband over the airwaves in places such as Cornwall, where the terrain makes it near impossible to rig up roads and halt traffic for the purposes of installing cable connections, or new phone lines.

Full terms and details of the plan will be unveiled on the publication of Lord Carter’s forthcoming report entitled Digital Britain, this June.

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1 Comment »Posted by Tom on January 16th 2009 in BT Broadband, Broadband, Next Gen Broadband



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One Response to “Broadband for all by 2012: Industry to foot the bill”

  1. alan Vose said on 29 Jan 2009 at 3:21 pm #

    Iit’d be good to be able to get any sort of decent broad band in the sticks near Dunlop, 20 miles from the centre of Glasgow we get 56k at a distance of 5 miles from the exchange in Stewarton. I’ll get a carrier pigeon!


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