The wireless communications and broadcast industries will be hoping for increased investment over the next three years as the government lays out its plans for radically modernising the UK’s communications infrastructure.
The report –
Digital Britain – sets 2012 as the date by which its goals should be achieved. These goals include new, high-capacity broadband networks and the digital delivery of essential public services.
But this could be a lost opportunity for the UK because the government seems to have wimped out and not set the more ambitious and arguably necessary 100Mbit/s data rate target for the national broadband network.
“This is absolutely vital if Britain is to benefit fully from some of the greatest economic opportunities on offer this century,” said business secretary, Peter Mandelson.
This is indeed a wide-ranging report from the government but we are dismayed to see that it spends as much time discussing digital content and the delivery of services as it does about network infrastructure.
Would the German government fall into that trap? We think not.
Unlike most other national infrastructure, Britain’s communications networks have been created, in the main, without direct public funding. The question is whether this will be enough to increase the capacity and quality of our digital networks to meet growing consumer and business expectations.
Does this mean the government has been disappointed with the level of private sector investment in the broadband network and wants more?
The government has adopted the recommendations of the
Caio Review carried out in February.
The most significant of these were the need for accelerating spectrum release, lowering build-out costs through better streetwork co-ordination and allowing overhead deployment, and supporting local, open-access network developments.
Despite the question of where the investment will come from, the biggest worry is that the government may have fudged the issue even before the process has begun.
Instead of aiming for a national broadband network capable of supporting 100Mbit/s data rates, as is happening in Japan and parts of Europe, the government has set the more modest target of 20Mbit/s for the whole country by 2012.