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By David Meyer, 12 September 2008 17:16

NEWS

Caio continued: "Wireless will play also as an important competitive stimulus to fixed operators." He refused to give his definition of 'high-speed broadband', calling it a "moving target". He said: "Symmetry will be increasingly important and latency even more important. One should be careful about jumping to the conclusion that fibre is the only answer."

Caio also refused to call on the government to force service providers to roll out their services everywhere in the country. "My message to government is: don't commit to anything today, because the technology is changing," he said. "Local [deployments] and wireless might even provide coverage to areas that, today, are not covered. It is too early for the government to issue a policy of universal coverage for next-generation broadband."

Pointing out that internet access will become less dependent on the PC as embedded systems become more prevalent in the home, Caio said "we're now done with the first phase of PC broadband and web-surfing technology".

Caio had already presented his findings to the prime minister, Gordon Brown, earlier in the day, and told the audience at BERR that he had come away from that meeting with the impression that Brown found something in the recommendations "to include in the political agenda".

BERR's Vadera told the audience that the government would "take forward the recommendations in the review", later clarifying her statement to say the recommendations were accepted "in principle", and each point would now be examined in detail. She also emphasised that many of the recommendations were for Ofcom, rather than government.

Caio urged Ofcom to push forward negotiations with operators, who have been calling for regulatory clarity prior to investing. "[Such negotiations] ain't going to be a walk in the park," said Caio. "You will hear a lot of screaming."

He also suggested several ways in which operators could raise the funds to roll out fibre: through billing, interconnection with other operators, wholesale operation, and potentially through advertising strategies such as that exemplified by the Phorm scheme.

However, Caio stressed that such advertising schemes would have to be made explicit to consumers. "I don't think this is the place for ideology," he said. "It is the place for consumer transparency and clarity of rules."

Ofcom welcomed the review, specifically its references to public-policy issues, such as planning and streetworks. "We are working with all stakeholders to ensure investment and competition in the development of super-fast broadband in the UK," a Friday statement said.

In a statement, BT said it welcomes the Caio report as "a useful contribution to the NGA debate, and agrees with the broad conclusion that the market, rather than the state, should be the catalyst for fibre rollout. We will work closely in partnership with [regional development agencies and] other regional and public bodies, along with industry, to that end. As we are just embarking on the rollout of next-generation services, it may be premature to try and predict which areas will not be served by the market. We agree, therefore, that, at the present time, public-sector action in most areas should be focused primarily on ensuring demand for these services is developed and aggregated where possible."

The Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG), which recently issued its own costing for a potential fibre rollout in the UK, was also in favour of the report. "Importantly, this report states that, although there is no government money on the table, there is a key leadership role for both government and Ofcom, and that everyone involved in the provision of broadband must work more closely together if we are to address the challenges of deployment of next-generation, super-fast broadband in the UK," said BSG chairman Kip Meek.

Ofcom itself will release its own review into NGA provision later this month.