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By Graeme Wearden, 18 November 2002 09:30

NEWS Every part of the UK will get affordable broadband eventually, according to one telecoms analyst who opposes calls for government intervention. Jan Dawson, Ovum analyst, believes that those who are calling for government intervention to address the UK's broadband divide are wrong. Such a move, Dawson warns, would be counter-productive in the long-term as it could create an inefficient broadband market that was reliant on subsidy. In a research note, Dawson points to the current boom in the UK's broadband market as evidence that the government's current strategy - of letting market forces drive the supply and take-up of high-speed internet services - is working. Dawson wrote: "The UK government has committed less than £3 per head to broadband, compared with £16 per head in France, and £60 per head in Japan. And yet, Britain has overtaken France in the last couple of months." The UK hit the one million broadband connections milestone last month and take-up is thought to currently be running at 34,000 new orders per week. Despite this success Broadband Britain is far from becoming a reality. Around one in three homes and businesses cannot get affordable broadband as they are located outside the broadband networks of BT, NTL and Telewest. The UK government has regularly been urged by consumers and industry bodies to introduce subsidies aimed at speeding up the roll-out of broadband across Britain - especially to areas where it is currently unavailable - and deemed by operators not to be economically viable. However, Dawson does not support such ideas. Dawson said: "Broadband is already too expensive for some people, and if you make it a universal service the price will rise. With a universal service, customers who are cheap to connect subsidise those who are expensive to connect. "And subsidies would mean the government would have to tax everyone a significant amount, and justify spending the money on broadband in the face of other demands." Dawson added that broadband cannot be described as an essential service because only a small proportion of the people who can get it have actually signed up. According to Oftel, around 15 million homes could get broadband, but just an estimated 1.1 million connections have been sold so far. Graeme Wearden writes for News.com