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Lord Carter calls for mobile broadband meeting
Thursday 12th February 2009, by Daniel King
The communications minister has taken a further step towards achieving his plans for universal broadband access by 2012.
Lord Carter has called on the UK's five mobile phone networks to attend a key meeting this week in a bid to strike an agreement before his final Digital Britain 2009 report.
His initial publication last month put forward plans for a compromise between the mobile phone companies that would see them each sharing the existing mobile broadband spectrum.
The spectrum is currently held by Vodafone and O2, but Lord Carter is keen for it to be opened up to allow rivals T-Mobile, Orange and 3 to make use of it for their own broadband services.
However, the two original mobile phone operators are reluctant to share their slice of the 900 Mhz spectrum, which is vital to the introduction of broadband for all because it allows signals to travel over longer distances.
Lord Carter is believed to have enlisted the help of Kip Meek, head of the government's independent advisory panel the Broadband Stakeholder Group, to help lead negotiations between the five operators.
The communications minister hopes to introduce universal broadband offering speeds of up to 2Mbps to users across the UK within the next three years.
His plans have been welcomed by many industry officials, who claim that the introduction of faster internet speed for all is vital to the future prosperity of the UK economy.
However, the initial Digital Britain report received criticism from some quarters, with a number of critics expressing their disappointment at the "lack of ambition" shown by the government.
