By Tim Ferguson, 26 January 2009 17:36
NEWS
The broadband industry needs to focus on making broadband available to more people in the UK before concentrating on the rollout of faster next generation networks, according to industry experts.
Speaking at the Oxford Media Convention last week, strategy and markets development partner for Ofcom, Peter Phillips, said wider availability should be the top broadband priority for the UK.
"It's even more important [than a next generation rollout] to ensure that all UK residents have access to high-speed broadband," he said.
Speaking to silicon.com, chief executive of the Broadband Stakeholder Group, Anthony Walker, said the question of availability must also be tackled to increase uptake.
He said: "Where possible it is now time to address those 'notspots' in terms of availability and I think that's really on the basis that broadband is increasingly being seen as a basic utility for households, both in terms of the benefits of connectivity and also things like access to services such as BBC iPlayer and others."
"There's a growing sense that there's an issue of social equity of opportunity in terms of being able to access broadband. It's something that's clearly of huge value to people," he added.
Ofcom's Phillips said that with around 40 per cent of UK households still without broadband, vulnerable groups - such as the elderly and low-income households - are being excluded from the benefits that broadband can bring - from awareness of what's happening in the local community to the ability to access e-government, health and community services.
Phillips added: "Many people simply aren't interested in broadband because they simply can't understand why it's relevant to their lives."
According to Anna Bradley, chair of the Communications Consumer Panel, barriers for consumers - such as a lack of knowledge or confidence in the web - also need to be removed in order for more people to engage with the internet.
Recent figures from the Office for National Statistics show that broadband as a percentage of total internet connections rose by just 1.3 per cent between June and September 2008.
During the same period, total internet connections actually fell by 0.4 per cent as a result of people moving off dial-up but not moving to broadband.
So what's the key to increasing the number of broadband users? Content appears to be king.
Jon Kingsbury, creative economy programme director at the lottery-funded National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, suggested providing the right content will boost take-up. "The services that could be provided by broadcasters are key to people adopting [broadband]," he told the Oxford Media Convention.
Ofcom's Phillips meanwhile highlighted the success of the BBC iPlayer and Project Canvas - an industry initiative to create common standards to help bring the internet to people's televisions - as initiatives that could promote broadband uptake.
There have already been hints from government that broadband access could soon become a right for Britons, after minister for communications, technology and broadcasting, Lord Stephen Carter, said universal broadband access could offer huge benefits to e-government.
The Digital Britain report by Lord Carter will outline proposals to support the growth of digital communications in the UK.
The interim report, expected to be published later this week, is rumoured to include a proposal to make broadband part of the universal service obligation that currently requires that all UK households have access to a fixed telephone landline and narrowband internet.
Ways in which this could be funded have been subject to debate: some believe government funding is needed, while others including BT, say mobile and other fixed-line operators should help foot the bill.
Comments
There are 3 comments. Join the discussion
1. Mike Kiely
The move from best effort broadband to data services which are capable of supporting multiple applications including critical services on a national basis is challenging but do-able.
Defining a minimum bandwidth with boundaries on loss and delay can be done.
ISPs will have to provide greater transparency of service parameters, and we users will need to prioritise our traffic for congestion management at peak periods.
The USO costs to be shared by all, and hopefully my legacy service payments for Voice can be used to make a better high speed service.
Defining the nature of our digital commons will be an interesting exercise. Roll on digital Britain!
2. Gareth Evans
Surely this is not a question of "either", "or". We need to expand coverage AND more up the technology stakes and provide fibre access where feasible.
Reports abound about the economic benefits of higher speed connectivity so let's not loose sight of that while we also try and resolve the social inequality aspect of broadband coverage.
3. Andrew Ferguson
Not spot campaigns have been on going in Scotland and Wales for a long time. It seems to have taken a few years for those in positions of power to notice that parts of the UK have areas without broadband - unfortunately many of these people simply suffer in silence.
While plugging notspots should be a priority, if the Digital Britain report only addresses this in a 3 to 5 year time frame which would be quick for any government intervention we will find that the rest of the UK is seriously hurting its e-economy.
In an ideal world, broadband notspots should be addressed in a way that ensures they become the places to be, i.e. give them fibre based solutions that will last for as long as the copper network already has.
The knowledge gained in rolling this uber broadband to the 2 to 5% of the UK needing it will make commercial roll-outs easier.
Whatever happens remember that notspots are not just half up a mountain, just a few miles outside Guildford there is an area that is nominally enabled, but has broadband problems, and similarly for some households near London airport.