Faster broadband must wait

Britain's broadband industry has said there is no need to push for next-generation broadband yet because there is not the demand.

Despite Minister for Competitiveness Stephen Timms' declaration last month that delays putting the necessary networks in place could jeopardise the UK economy, the internet industry said current market conditions did not justify the cost.

Industry regulator Ofcom said the industry was telling it there was neither the demand nor the content to deliver to support the investment needed to provide ultra-fast broadband.

Fears the UK would fall behind Europe in the deployment of faster broadband networks were unfounded, Ofcom said, because the UK market does not depend on broadband to deliver television services.

"Therefore people should not be worried that the UK will be rolling out its next-generation broadband at a later time than other countries," the regulator added.

BT also said there was no market for investing in new infrastructure at the moment.

"BT has a positive view on next-generation broadband and considering putting it in new homes, but our stakeholders need to be happy. Until we see a sense of demand, which we don’t because there are no content applications that require high-speed broadband, fibre to the home at the moment is not a realistic investment for companies," a representative said.

Even the Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG), which brought the need for next-generation broadband to Mr Timms' attention earlier this year, said there was no need to panic just yet.

Antony Walker, chief executive of the BSG, told Computeractive: "This generation's broadband is in a good and healthy position. There is a good degree of competition and good innovations taking place, including increasing speeds.

"We need to clear up policy and regulation before we even think about implementation. However, if the UK does not begin to address the issue within the next three to five years, then we should begin to worry about being left behind.

However, Ian Fogg, broadband analyst with Jupiter Research disagreed. He said: "Anyone who says there is not a demand for next-generation broadband or there is not enough content is wrong.

"Firstly, we can’t gauge the demand as some internet service providers don’t even offer ADSL2+ and there is so much confusion around current speeds in the market it is impossible to see what people want. Secondly, the current speeds are too slow for multimedia content such as BT Vision."

Mr Timms welcomed the open dialogue last month's broadband summit had generated. He said: "The Broadband Summit at the end of November was the start of a process through which differing perspectives on the future of the UK telecoms infrastructure could be discussed.

"The Summit provided an opportunity for open dialogue and brought together key people from Government, Ofcom and industry. I look forward to seeing that dialogue continue as we develop a shared view for how the next-generation broadband will be delivered in the UK, maintaining our strong competitive position."

He said he intended to call a further meeting in about six months' time.

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