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| CURRENT SECTION :: TechZone | UK's most visited IT Contractor Site - 250k unique visitors March 2008 |
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The government is willing to intervene in the private sector so high-performance broadband and telecoms services rapidly become available in every part of the country. Without some form of intervention, the UK is at risk of lagging behind its global rivals whose fibre-based technology can deliver higher bandwidth than is available in the UK today. Stephen Timms, competitiveness minister, used his first speech to warn that without a roadmap to develop ultra fast broadband, the UK will be on the losing end of the digital divide. Countries including France, Germany and the US have already started to deploy fixed-line networks, capable of delivering broadband speeds of 50 to 100 megabits a second. In the UK, however, the most optimistic comparison is that BT might offer residential users broadband speeds of up to 24Mbps by 2008. Installing fibre could raise speeds up to 50Mbps. Kip Meek, chairman of the Broadband Stakeholder Group, said the UK must “find a way to encourage timely and efficient investment” of technology or risk losing out. As communications infrastructure is a key enabler of competitiveness, he said the government should provide ministerial leadership to address the challenge. His wish has been granted in the shape of Mr Timms, former e-commerce minister, who is to chair a meeting of technology minds to discuss when and how the state could intervene. The group will convene in November or December, the FT reported. Among its aims, it will liaise with public sector bodies to identify how the state can intervene in regions of the UK where “persistent market failure” to develop ultra-fast broadband and telecom services is likely to occur. Mr Timms said: “I see it as one of my highest personal priorities that we have a high performance telecommunications infrastructure in every part of the country, enabling us to compete successfully on a global basis. “That is why I have decided to chair a high level summit… I want it to be an open exchange, to bring together key people from government, from Ofcom and from industry. It is essential that the UK undertakes timely deployment of technology – we can’t lag behind.” Sep 20, 2007 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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