This week, I went to Bridgwater to attend the first in a new series of conferences on next generation access organised by the Independent Networks Cooperative Association (INCA). I chaired a workshop on "Partnership Building in NGA".
The event was held in the South-West Region, the largest in England and one of the few which is likely to retain a Regional Development Agency. Around 20% of the region does not currently meet the universal broadband commitment of 2 Mbit/s and most of the region is likely to fall into the 'final third' in terms of next generation broadband (although Cornwall is expected to obtain a promise of EU funding soon).
The conference was very supportive of local initiatives to take NGA to parts of the country where the market will not deliver but was concerned about the lack of clarity from the new government over public funding for 'final third' projects. BT's Regional Director revealed that the company had entered into its first local partnership to provide NGA in a non-commercial location, this being with the parish Council in Iwade village in Kent.
The Digital Britain Final Report called it the Network Design and Procurement Group and we've waited a while for it to be set up. But this week it arrived with a more media-friendly name.
Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) will drive forward the Universal Service Commitment to deliver 2Mbps to every household by 2012 and - if the proposal for a landline duty wins Parliamentary approval before the General Election - it will manage the spend of the £1billion Next Generation Fund to deliver next generation broadband to 90% of the country by 2017.
One of the liveliest of the six seminars at this year's Oxford Media Convention was that entitled "Our digital future: can Britain's digital infrastructure compete?" The seminar was chaired by Damian Tambini in his capacity as a senior lecturer at the London School of Economics, but Damian is also a member of the Communicatons Consumer Panel. One of the five seminar panellists was Anna Bradley who is Chair of the Communications Consumer Panel.
The debate was started by Kip Meek who was participating in his capacity as Chair of Ingenious Consulting but inevitably he drew on the work of the Broadband Stakeholder Group which he also chairs. He was doubtful of the value of the Government pursuing a universal broadband commitment of 2 Mbit/s ("I'm agnostic on the merits of universality") and sceptical about the need at this stage for public intervention in the roll-out of next generation broadband ("I have a hunch that it is premature to have targets").
Anna supported the notion of a universal broadband commitment and specifically addressed the questions:
1) What is the universal broadband commitment for?
2) Will the commitment ensure that everyone has 2 Mbit/s by 2012?
3) Will 2 Mbit/s be enough?
4) Will this solve the digital divide?
You can read the text of Ann'a remarks here.
It may have escaped your notice (!) that the Ofcom-promoted voluntary <a href="http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/features/broadcodejy">code on broadband speeds</a> is exactly one year old day.
Many consumers have been frustrated by advertisements promising them "up to X Mbps", since many customers have no chance of receiving anything like this speed, principally because they live too far from the exchange or too many other broadband users share the line. The variation between the headline speed and and the average speed can be dramatic and, at different times, the difference between the average speed and the actual speed can be significant.
Several measures need to be taken. First, the Advertising Standards Authority needs to reconsider how broadband speeds are advertised so that customer expectations are closer to actual experience of the service. Second, Ofcom needs to review the effectiveness of the voluntary code of practice one year after its implementation. Third, Ofcom should commission a further round of research on the actual broadband speeds obtained by consumers from various technologies and ISPs.
Earlier this week, I attended the latest and largest event on next generation access organised by the Community Broadband Network. This was a one and a half day conference at the Royal Armories.
The event was addressed by both Opposition spokesperson Ed Vaizey and Government Minister Stephen Timms. I asked each about the proposal in the Digital Britain Final Report that there be a next generation levy, that is 50 p per month per fixed line to help fund the roll-out of next generation access to the so-called final third of the country.
Ed Vaizey was totally opposed to the proposal which he called "this evil Labour tax". He said that it was "an analogue solution to a digital problem". He was concerned that much of a next generation fund would be swallowed up by administrative and consultants' costs and that in any event the sums raised by the levy would be inadequate but, above all, he did not favour "a top-down approach".
By contrast, Stephen Timms argued that the levy was necessary if NGA was to reach most parts of the country and he was determined to see the measure in the Finance Bill. He acknowledged that there is a political convention that, if a General Election is called before a Finance Bill has reached the Statute Book, then the controversial parts are dropped and a short uncontroversial Bill is passed. In that context and referring to the prospect of the levy staying in the Bill, he admitted that "There is scope for the Opposition to make that difficult". He insisted "I want it in the Bill" but conceded "I cannot give you a cast-iron guarantee".
You can hear the full record of my question to the Minister and his response by clicking here and scrolling down to "Stephen Timms MP answers questions at NextGen09 (1)".
Earlier this week, I attended the latest and largest (260 participants) event on next generation access organised by the Community Broadband Network. This was a one and a half day conference at the Royal Armories.
As a member of the Communications Consumer Panel, I was pleased that the Minister mentioned the Panel's latest review of local NGA schemes and that another speaker, Graeme Dent of Digital Region, showed the Panel video on the experience of the NGA schemes in Utah and Nuenen.
I chaired a workshop on digital inclusion addressed by Jillian Pitt of Consumer Focus, Vicki Hanson of Dundee University, and Martin Cantor of Barnsley Council.
At the conference, there was a palpable sense of excitement that NGA is now happening and that local schemes have a vital role to play with the largest of these (Digital Region) being in the host region for the event.
As the Panel have said repeatedly, what matters about a universal service commitment as far as consumers and citizens are concerned, is what it delivers and that this is delivered reliably. We have said that we think a new type of more interactive public service will be essential to entice some consumers to get on-line, for example. We have also said that the connection must be wide enough and reliable enough to deliver services that need 2 Mb/s - not ‘up to', but actual and guaranteed.
We recently met some internet companies (yahoo, ebay and skype) who obviously want to see that all consumers are offered a broadband connection that gives them access to as many applications and services as they choose and it is certainly true that, from a consumer and citizen perspective, access via a PC has come to mean access to anything on the Internet subject to bandwidth limitations.
This raises the question of whether the universal broadband commitment should involve a commitment to providing reliable access to all services and applications that a 2Mb connection could allow. The Panel hasn't discussed this in detail, so we don't have the answers, but here are some questions that I think are worth asking:
• Is it OK from a citizen and consumer perspective that sometimes internet providers will stop us accessing a web service because there is illegal content somewhere on the site? The answer is probably yes, but we might expect legitimately expect everyone to work to get that service up and running again (minus offending material) asap and keep us in touch with what is happening. At the moment however, it is very unclear how internet providers and web service providers work together to get things moving fast or where you or I go to get something done when a service is no longer available. There might therefore be an issue about internet and content providers working better together to serve consumers' interests?
• Is it OK that at times when lots of us want to use the internet (Sunday nights for example,) we cannot achieve the higher bandwidths we might usually get and which make video content possible to access? At the moment some internet service providers will manage the traffic on their service to ensure everyone can access a little, but none of us can access as much as we have paid for or need. This would particularly affect some bandwidth heavy services. This approach may be pragmatic when we don't yet have a reliable universal service, but perhaps it needs to be clearer to us as consumers that this is what will happen, or is happening.
• Is it OK for an internet provider to deliver access to a subset of internet services? For example is it ok for a mobile company to exclude the possibility of using any other competing internet telephone systems, or for an internet supported TV to provide access to only a limited range of websites. And if such limited access is OK, what sort of information might consumers need so as to be able to make an appropriate choice about which internet service to purchase?
• Finally, given all the above (and doubtless other) questions about access to content, what do we think should be guaranteed as part of the universal service commitment and what are we happy to leave to the market?
The Panel will doubtless need to discuss these issues over the next period, but please let us know if you have any comments.
Last week I attended the launch of a broadband advice centre and mobile unit in Omagh for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), opened by Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster. The purpose of the unit is to help SME's and micro businesses (on which NI is economically dependent) get the best from ICT. Omagh is in the west of the province, which is deeply rural and grapples with most of the major issues with broadband and mobile telecoms.
The centre and the mobile unit are part of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment's (DETI) £3.9million, Log on-NI programme. This is designed to deliver free broadband advice to Northern Ireland's SMEs, enabling them to take advantage of the potential benefits of broadband. The programme is co-financed under the European Regional Development Fund Sustainable Competitiveness Programme 2007-2013.
Log on-NI has 10 trained broadband advisers already active in delivering broadband action plans to participating SMEs. It is a flexible programme where businesses can either visit the facilities at Gortrush Industrial Park in Omagh, or visit the mobile unit as it travels across the whole of Northern Ireland. Alternatively, a broadband adviser can go to an individual business premises to offer advice on site.
Commendium Limited, the company chosen to deliver the programme on behalf of DETI, has previous experience of working with SMEs to stimulate take-up and high value use of broadband. Their programme in Cumbria took ICT use in SME's from 17 to 70% in 3 yrs. The experience seems to show that companies that have fully embraced ICT and broadband are faring better in this current economic climate that those that have not. See www.commendium.com.
Log on-NI aims to stimulate take-up of services and to demonstrate how high value, innovative use of broadband by SMEs can deliver business expansion, increase competitiveness and market share, secure reductions in business overheads and increase productivity.
Log on-NI has the potential to make an important contribution to increasing digital participation in Northern Ireland. In providing advice and training on getting connected and understanding ICT it provides both SMEs, and the people who work in them, the opportunity to develop the range of skills required to participate fully in a digital society. Further details are at www.logon-ni.co.uk.
The Community Broadband Network has been organising a series of regional conferences throughout England to discuss the prospects for next generation access (NGA) or super fast broadband which is usually assumed to require either fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) or fibre to the home (FTTH). The sixth and last of these events will be held in Manchester on 23 June. On behalf of the Commuications Consumer Panel, I will have addressed four of these conferences which have identified considerable frustration at the roll-out of NGA in this country and a desire to promote local schemes.
The Fiber to the Home Council - a worldwide organisation - has identified 20 countries in the world where FTTH connections exceed 1% of homes. As the CBN events have underlined, the UK does not begin to figure in this league.
So how many FTTH connections are there in Britain today? At the CBN events, CBN Chairman Malcolm Corbett has joked that FTTH roll-out by BT is so slow that CBN projects now account for more FTTH connections that those of BT. Is this true? Just how many FTTH connections do we have in this country and is BT behind CBN?
The most advanced CBN project is at West Whitlawburn in Scotland which currently has around 60 live fibre connections. Some 40 of the properties have tenants and another 10 are scheduled to move in during the next week or so. BT's 'showcase' FTTH site is at Ebbsfleet (which I have visited), where the recession has slowed down developments considerably, and fibre connections are still only a little over 50.
Prior to its two local trials in Muswell Hill, London and Whitchurch, South Glamorgan, Openreach will has started a technical trial in the Foxhall exchange area of Kesgrave, Suffolk, but all three of these trials are fibre to the cabinet (FTTC).
So it seems that currently the UK has merely around 100 FTTH connections in use by consumers with BT and CBN pretty much neck-and-neck.
However, there is underway a BT/industry consultation on fibre to the premise (FTTP) on brownfield sites. BT plans to start trials between January and March 2010, giving FTTP potential coverage of up
to around 5,000 - 40,000 premises passed, subject to interest from communications providers.
This morning, the Communications Consumer Panel published research which shows that consumers believe that we are not very far from the point where broadband becomes so important that there are serious disadvantages from not having it. You can read the report on the website by clicking here.
Offering products and services over the internet is an increasingly attractive proposition both for the public sector and the private sector. Websites and clever algorithms allow providers to tailor services to the customer's needs and preferences. Arguably, many of these customer-focussed services can be offered via the phone, but the cost of providing a telephone system is much higher than the cost of running and maintaining a website.
I came across a few websites and situations recently that made me wonder whether we are not already crossing over to the time when there are seriousdisadvantages for people who have not got broadband access:
- Price comparison websites like moneysupermarket.com or confuse.com do not have off-line alternatives.
- The cheapest mortgage or insurance offers are often only available from online service providers.
- If you have missed a popular TV show like Britain's Got Talent and you want to join in the water cooler conversation about Susan Boyle you can only do that after watching her on a TV catch-up service or Youtube.
- Internet airline booking gives you cheaper fares or reduced booking fees.
- DVD rental sites such as lovefilm.com do not seem to offer a telephone alternative.
- There are many internet radio stations that are only available online.
- Many job vacancies are only advertised on web sites.
- As part of flexible working patterns, UK companies increasingly allow workers to work from home - and if much of your work involves computer use, this means accessing your company's server remotely over broadband.
There are also a few interesting example when we cross into the area of public services:
- The TV catch-up service BBC iPlayer, is seen as an essential part of the BBC's output, but is only available tot those with internet access.
- BBC schools website offers fantastic resources such as a free online typing course for kids - http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/
- My local school often asks children to do their homework on "link and learn": a website http://www.fleetvillejm.herts.sch.uk/pupils/index.html
where children can do exercises and pupils as well as teachers can write comments in their learning journal.
- The practice whereby rail franchises make cheaper fares available on the internet was recently branded as "unacceptable" by the Commons public accounts committee. It said that because many do not have access to the internet the concept of Britain's railways as a public service available to all has been "undermined" by this practice.
- There are public sector internet applications that might just be round the corner and that could become an essential part of our daily lives: what if a carer could have a daily catch-up with an older person via a webcam? What if schools start requiring you to submit your coursework online?
I think the writing is on the wall: we are moving to a society where you have to have access to the internet to get the best deals, the best information or the best educational support - and as the panel's research indicates: this should not happen without a parallel effort to get everyone online with a decent speed connection, and with the support they need to reap the benefits.
Leen Petré
There are many digital divides: a lack of access to basic broadband (say 512 kbit/s) which are the so-called 'not spots'; a lack of access to medium speed broadband (say 2 Mbit/s) which is what the Digital Britain proposal for a universal broadband commitment is seeking to address; a lack of access to super fast broadband (say more than the 24 Mbit/s that one can obtain from ADSL2+); and - very importantly - a lack of take-up even where there is access (some 40% of homes still do not take broadband at any speed).
The Communications Consumer Panel is engaged in all these debates and tracks all the latest data to show the extent of the various divides and the reasons for them. The most recent data was research published by the BBC which includes a map of the UK showing where it is not possible to receive either 0.5 Mbit/s or 2 Mbit/s. According to this research, about three million homes have broadband speeds of less than 2 Mbit/s.
This is the sort of speed that one will need to access the promised Project Canvas services and highlights the need for the sort of universal broadband commitment being considered by the Government.
On Tuesday 19th May I attended an event titled, "Policy making for places - rural proofing the work of government". The event was organised by the Commission for Rural Communities (CRC). The event was to launch its rural proofing policy toolkit. A copy of the rural proofing toolkit can be downloaded here. The Panel has also devised its own policy development toolkit to ensure the consumer interest is taken into account when organisations develop its communications policy. The toolkit has been embedded across Ofcom and has been successful in encouraging a greater focus on consumer issues.
Those attending the event were a mix of policy advisors and practitioners, from the national to the local authority and borough level. They represented planning departments, Primary Care Trusts, UK tourism, the forestry commission, National Assemblies and Governments to name but a few.
Huw-Iranca Davies, the Minister for Rural Affairs, gave the keynote speech and set out DEFRA's current policy priorities. These are:
It was interesting to hear that both Huw Irranca Davies and Stuart Burgess (the Chairman of the Commission for Rural Communities) cited broadband as an essential service for rural areas. The Minister said, "(those who live in rural areas) don't expect something different, they expect the same and the same access to essential services". He also said that his department was working closely with DCLG, BERR and the CRC to ensure rural areas of the UK do not fall behind in terms of broadband access.
Stuart Burgess talked about the difficulties of different legislation stopping people accessing a decent broadband network. He cited the example of Alston Moor. Here members of the community are trying to connect into and share the NHS fibre backbone, but due to data protection and security reasons the NHS will not allow it. He argued that services like tele-medicine could save the NHS many thousands of pounds in the locality and not allowing access to the network due to these concerns was a wrong-headed way to look at the issue. Stuart Burgess also argued that quality access to a broadband network is essential to a local economy in today's connected society.
We as a Panel work to ensure rural needs taken into account when communications policy is developed across government and the regulator. We have published a report that maps the current UK community schemes that are rolling-out next generation broadband networks. We are also looking at the issue of mobile phone coverage in the UK and what impact mobile coverage not-spots have on people.
Following the interim Digital Britain report and now the Budget announcement on universal service in broadband, a consensus appears to be emerging in support of a new universal service ‘commitment' to ensure that all can enjoy basic broadband. Universal service in super-fast broadband is a long way off, but Government is actively considering what it needs to do to ensure that provision reaches those areas and segments of the population that will find it difficult to access faster services. These initiatives, on basic broadband and faster broadband, promise significant benefits for UK consumers.
Part of the challenge for Digital Britain is to achieve a new deal for these network operators to ensure that the business model for this new network adds up and they can generate the revenues necessary to invest. In this context, those concerned with the interests of citizens and consumers should also be interested in what the new regulatory settlement entails for those providers and their relationships with consumers. Three issues loom large:
First, Net Neutrality. One way network operators could benefit from investing in network upgrades is if they are able to ‘manage' traffic on their networks - potentially charging content providers for distribution. This might sound fine in principle, but many argue that this would fundamentally impact competition, the consumer experience and the development of the internet in the long term. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Communications (APComms) has recently announced a wide ranging Inquiry asking: Who should be paying for the transmission of Internet traffic? Would it be appropriate to enshrine any of the various notions of Network Neutrality in statute?
Second: Privacy and security, which recent Consumer Panel research confirmed is a key barrier to taking up broadband services, in relation both to public and private use of personal data. Clearly, again here, and particularly where government is more actively involved in deploying the technology, there are a range of new potential consumer issues. APComms asks: Should the Government be intervening over behavioural advertising services, either to encourage or discourage their deployment; or is this entirely a matter for individual users, ISPs and websites?
Finally copyright, and dealing with illegal downloading. Whilst it is clear that the law is ineffective in this area and reform is necessary, developing a framework for protection that balances the rights holders' interests with those of consumers is tricky. Using technology and private enforcement to protect IP impacts what consumers are able to do with cultural content and leads to new challenges in terms of interoperability and usability. And this is leading to widespread caution about reform in this area. In a move that could block planned French anti-piracy measures, The European Parliament only recently voted through a paragraph in the new Telecoms Directive Package that makes clear that "No restrictions may be imposed on fundamental rights and freedoms of [telecom], users without a prior judicial determination". What this implies is that any decision that may effect the fundamental rights of consumers - such as their speech rights including the right to receive ideas - should be taken by judges, not ISPs, with full legal due process.
The debate on these broader issues appears to be hotting up. I hope long and careful consideration will be given to these broader issues and the correct balance reached.
Should access to broadband at home be a right? Just how widespread is the belief that it's an essential service? And what are the implications for broadband speed - what would be needed to support the kind of activities that people want and need to do online? Three questions which our Panel has really wanted to test and explore with consumers in order to get their needs represented at the Digital Britain table.
So it was great to get the answers, in headline at least, off our collective chests and into a letter to Lord Carter (click here for the letter). Yes, for some groups of people home broadband is already essential - families with young children, those who are physically or socially isolated, and often those who already have it at home, and can't imagine going back to life without it. And soon, it will be essential for all. These findings come from our most recently commissioned research (due for publication in May) on this area.
As our Panel chair Anna Bradley wrote in the letter to Lord Carter: "the tipping point will be when broadband does not just provide an advantage to people who have it, but disadvantages people who do not." And that tipping point is surely close at hand - given the rapid expansion of health and education services into the online world, not to mention the social, political, employment and entertainment networks which are migrating, or have developed entirely on the net. From Obama's online election campaign and the implications for political engagement in the UK, to Susan Boyle's 50 million hits on You Tube for showing the world that Britain really does have talent, it's rapidly, demonstrably becoming clear that being a citizen of the 21st century and participating fully in its culture will require access to broadband. So as Anna Bradley noted on the Blog the other day, the Panel is very pleased that in the Budget Report the Government confirmed its commitment to universal 2Mb/s broadband by 2012. But we await the Digital Britain Interim Report for details of how exactly this commitment will be implemented and how the Government will ensure that the speed of connection that will be delivered does not become outmoded. And as the Panel has stressed, the Government needs to make clear what activities people will and will not be able to carry out with the speed and type of broadband connection that will be available to them.
Things are moving very fast in the broadband debate and all to the good for consumers, citizens and small businesses. Last week I attended the Digital Britain summit in London (similar events are being held in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland this week). In London we had not one, not even two or three, but four Ministers attending, including Gordon Brown. You can be left in no doubt about the political committment to advancing the digital agenda in Britain.
Yesterday we had a budget commitment to universal 2mb broadband by 2012 - a policy intitaive which our most recent (soon to be published consumer research) strongly supports. But perhaps even more interesting than 2mb broadband, is the energy that there seems now to be in relation to next generation, superfast broadband.
In September March 2008 I said "We already know that the economic case for next generation access will not stack up in some areas and we can predict which areas that will be. So let's address these issues alongside commercial roll-out, not after it." http://www.communicationsconsumerpanel.org.uk/smartweb/news-releases/consumer-panel-calls-for-communities-excluded-from-current-broadband-to-leapfrog-to-fast-next-genera.
At the summit last week, Ian Livingstone (Chief Executive of BT) and Neil Burkett (Chief Executive of Virgin Media) both emphasised the fact that while the market would deliver half the superfast broadband needed, we should get on and worry about the other half now, not wait for market failure and deepened exclusion. And yesterday, the Department of Business (DBERR) said in its budget statement that "The Government has consulted a design group made up of network experts on the best and most cost -effective ways of delivering a universal service via a range of solutions, including wired and mobile networks." Their conclusions, which will inform the detailed scheme design that will be published in the Digital Britain Final report, suggest that for at least some groups of currently underserved users a leap-frog to next generation superfast broadband may be the most economical solution. http://nds.coi.gov.uk/environment/fullDetail.asp?ReleaseID=399352&NewsAreaID=2&NavigatedFromDepartment=True.
The Panel are delighted to see these shifts in the prevailing view about whether to act or wait on superfast broadband - it will give hope to those consumers living with no or very poor broadband services at present. Our research shows that many of them are desperate to have better access, experiencing what they descibe as real disadvantage.
With so much progress it might seem mealy mouthed to ask what next; the final Digital Britain report has not yet been published, but there is a big question about how the momentum can be maintained beyond that final report. At the summit last week, I asked Stephen Carter what next. Carter agreed that the work was far from complete and suggested that there might be a need for not just a Bill, but also for a dedicated Government Department to maintain the momentum that has been achieved to date.
Anna
Over the next few months, the Community Broadband Network (CBN) is organising a series of six conferences around the country to discuss the contribution that local authorities, Regional Development Agencies, and private companies can play in developing local schemes for the provision of next generation access (NGA) or super fast broadband. The first of these events was held today in Gateshead.
On behalf of the Communications Consumer Panel, I gave a presentation about a survey we have conducted mapping as many as possible of the various local NGA schemes which are taking place throughout the UK. The total comes to almost 40, covering every nation in the UK and every region in England.
Four of these are in the North East region. One of them is in Gateshead itself in the Baltic Business Quarter where Alcatel-Lucent is providing optical fibre in a scheme called Gateshead Technology Innovation or G-ti.
It was clear from the day-long proceedings that there is growing interest by local authorities in promoting next generation broadband in their communities and some frustration at the relatively slow roll-out of NGA in the UK by big players like BT compared to what is happening in so many other countries.
The Community Broadband Network was a leading advocate of current generation broadband local schemes and it is now developing the same role in relation to next generation broadband or next generation access (NGA). Following the success of its Next Gen 08 event in Manchester last November, it is now organising a series of local roadshows as follows:
Gateshead - 18 March
Nottingham - 24 March
Bristol - 31 March
Birmingham - 22 April
S E England - 13 May
Manchester - June
If you wish to find out more about these events and register, go here.
On behalf of the Communications Consumer Panel, I spoke at the November event in Manchester and I'll be speaking at most of the regional workshops where I'll be talking about the Panel's survey of local NGA initiatives.
I attended a roundtable yesterday to discuss something called 'naked dsl' - a product that would allow consumers to buy broadband without requiring them to pay for a separate fixed telephone line. There are two reasons why some argue that it would be good for consumers if naked dsl were available in the UK:
The technology is particularly close to the hearts of those who want to see an expansion in what is called VOIP (literally voice over the internet) as an alternative to fixed or mobile telephony. The argument goes that if you have to pay for a fixed line anyway, you won't look seriously at other alternatives for telephony and as Ofcom research shows http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/cm/icmr08/icmr08.pdf, we haven't taken to VOIP in the UK, as much as our fellow consumers in other countries.
The arguments sound beguiling, or they did to me. But then I discovered that naked DSL could be made available commercially in the UK right now, it is just that no-one has brought it to market. Which brought two questions to mind:
At our meeting, we did not exhaust the debate on the first of these points, but suffice to say the case for action was not obvious. More of our debate was around the part naked DSL might play in digital inclusion and in particular increased broadband access.
There is no question that providing greater access to broadband is a big issue as our recent research showed http://www.communicationsconsumerpanel.org.uk/Meeting%20the%20needs%20of%20consumers.pdf . and everyone at the meeting agreed. But is naked dsl the right way to go?
Before we look at specific answers we need to understand much more about why 40% of consumers don't use broadband. We know some of them don't have access, but most do have access and don't choose to take it up. Confidence, need, perceived value and cost will all play a part in the explanation. Only when we understand exactly why different groups of consumers are not taking up broadband can we work out how best to achieve universal access in a way that encourages wider use right across the population.
Anna
There's a growing debate about the roll out in the UK of what is variously called super fast broadband, next generation broadband, or - to use the technical term - next generation access (NGA).
Besides the 'national' plans of Virgin Media and BT, there is an increasing number of local initiatives and the Communications Consumer Panel has been mapping these various initiatives for a study which it has published today. We found almost 40 schemes and you can check out the full list in our report here.
As will be seen, the various schemes are of very different sizes and at very different stages of development, but collectively they represent a range of funding and business models and of technical delivery options that should contribute significantly to the national debate on the timing and form of the roll-out of NGA in the UK.
The Communications Consumer Panel hopes that it has done a service in bringing together what we believe to be the most comprehensive survey to date. We would welcome further information on any of the schemes that we have mentioned and on any initiatives not covered in this review. Please post your comments on this blog.