By David Meyer, 1 July 2009 09:01
NEWS
A parliamentary select committee is to check whether the recommendations proposed in the Digital Britain report are realistic, particularly those regarding broadband speed.
The Business and Enterprise Committee inquiry was announced on Monday. Many of the government's recommendations in Lord Carter's Digital Britain report, published earlier this month, require new legislation if they are to be put into practice.
According to a parliamentary spokesperson, the select committee's inquiry is intended to "inform the House to better amend legislation" when that legislation is put before MPs after the summer recess.
The cross-party committee will examine several questions. It will ask whether the 2Mbps universal baseline broadband speed is ambitious enough, and will also investigate whether ISPs are providing the speeds they promise to consumers.
The 50p-per-month levy on each fixed copper line, as proposed by Carter, will also come under scrutiny. This charge, if allowed by the new legislation, will feed into a fund that will be used to roll out high-speed next-generation broadband access in areas of the UK where commercial companies do not see a sufficient business case for investment.
The committee will also attempt to find out whether the government's plans for next-generation broadband access will work, and whether current regulation "strikes the right balance between ensuring fair competition and encouraging investment in next-generation networks".
As part of the investigation, the committee is inviting the public to send in comments on UK broadband provision, with submission guidelines on a Berr website. Responses to the inquiry should be submitted to the select committee by 25 September.
Comments
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1. Tim Jackson
What have land-line owners done to be victimised by a tax to fund broadband expansion?
Where is the logic here? Why not mobiles? For that matter why not tax motorists, smokers, drinkers, gamblers, top-slice the BBC license fee, or add it to National Insurance. It makes as much sense. Is there an agenda to discourage use of land lines, or is it just a matter of grabbing at whatever source of revenue is nearest?
This will among others tax the elderly who rely on a landline for an emergency call service, but have absolutely no interest in broadband.
2. Karen Challinor
oh it's extremely realistic ... sadly
except that access will not be universal, the guaranteed 2Mb/s will be shared due to line contention, it will still be over copper and not fibre, the 50p tax will not be judged to be sufficient and will increase with time and we'll still have to pay an ISP for a connection as well and by the time it starts to have some effect other countries will have terabyte connections in place
Government IT - making mediocrity an achievement
3. Phil Thane
2Mb is perfectly realistic, the ISPs will just put "Up to" in small print.
4. Stuart Mather
The 2Mbps universal broadband provision is NOT and aspiration - it's an admission of defeat.
5. James Strachan
Read the Digital Dither plan, glass of port in hand oh…typical British fudge again.
So radio audio quality going down the pan, loads of scrap electronics cluttering up the skips, oh well looks like the iplod generation won.
On to broadband, is there going to be a vast investment to bring this in line…after all the banks got it…what…another tax, why is it that the only way the HMG knows how to move forward is by taxing people more.
Still, I will look forward to my 2Mbps connection, when and if the engineers find a spare pair on the old copper plant, to repair my existing line, I used to use iSDN, so this 1Mbps stuff is a wonderful thing.
Misunderstanding followed by underinvestment and underachievement is the British way.
Oh well, I may just move into a city ….