Broadband future plans questioned

An industry expert has questioned the Broadband Stakeholders Group's recommendations that more investment needs to be made into the broadband infrastructure in the UK.

Jason Lloyd, head of broadband at moneysupermarket.com, believes that with BT's 21st Century Network (21CN) plans well underway and Virgin Media's fibre-optic cable network capable of reaching 50 per cent of homes in the UK no further investment is needed.

Instead, the focus needs to be on keeping the broadband market competitive, so it is not dominated by the larger companies with smaller ISPs muscled out.

"There is a fear growing within the broadband industry that once BT stops supporting the roll-out of LLU (unbundled) services, we will see the industry start to become dominated by the main players who have the funds necessary to develop their own fibre optic networks," said Lloyd.

The solution to this, according to Lloyd, is intervention from the government and industry regulator Ofcom.

“It’s really down to the Government and the regulator Ofcom to step in and act here. If Ofcom decides that the likes of BT and Virgin Media, as well as other smaller growth sectors such as wireless networks represents sufficient competition, then it won’t act on BSG’s recommendations," Lloyd said.

The BSG's report, issued earlier this week, called for the uncertainties surrounding the future of high-speed broadband networks in the UK to be resolved quickly. If they were not, the report stated, the UK could face severe economic and social consequences.

An even more radical suggestion from Lloyd was to re-nationalise the communications infrastructure in the UK.

"The other alternative is much more extreme and that is to put BT back into public hands and turn its 21st Century Network into a neutral platform. However, I strongly doubt [Ofcom] will have the nerve or guts to carry that out.”

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/

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