Taxpayers' money not needed for broadband

A review into the future of the UK's broadband services has concluded that the case for large Government subsidy or big regulatory changes is "weak at best". The Government should not be "complacent" about the development of next generation access (NGA) to broadband but investment by the taxpayer is not required, it said. The report by Francesco Caio, former boss of Cable & Wireless, called on the Government and Ofcom to play an "active leadership role" in developing future broadband policies. Mr Caio said the UK benefited from a "competitive broadband industry and a rich choice of digital communications and entertainment platforms". Although there continued to be demand for bandwidth and strong growth in internet traffic, there was "little evidence" the UK would suffer in the short term from lacking an extensive NGA infrastructure. In Britain the average speed of high-speed fixed line access had increased, Mr Caio said. He called on ministers to set out a framework for the delivery of NGA, equip all the Government's planned three million new homes with the technology and amend planning laws to to allow fibre cables to run above the ground. Mr Caio said: "Although demand for bandwidth and internet traffic continues to exhibit strong growth, there is little evidence that in the short term the UK is going to suffer from the lack of an extensive NGA network. "I have therefore concluded that the case for a public intervention at this time is weak at best."

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ITN | September 12, 2008

Tags:. .homes. .needed. .ofcom. .complacent. .services