Business to Business News

The government-commissioned a report, it recommended that the UK’s Internet and Telecom companies should pay for the development of Britain’s next level broadband infrastructure.

The former chief executive of Cable & Wireless, Francisco Caio, who wrote t  he report last February, mentioned that costs to be incurred in delivering “Next Generation Access” (NGA) to broadband to gain leading online economy position for Britain should be borne by the private sector.

Caio, now vice-chairman of Lehman Brothers, asserted that the government need not intervene in investment at this stage since there was little evidence that the UK would suffer from the lack of next-generation access network in the short term.

He concluded that the case for public intervention at this time was not strong enough but it was right time to create conditions for delivering NGA infrastructure in the next 5 years.

Caio made a few key recommendations:

1. Government should open up two parts of radio spectrum for enabling wireless internet access.
2. Government and construction industry should work jointly to install next-generation broadband in all new homes.
3. Government should allow broadband delivery via overhead cables by relaxing planning rules.
The report did not receive wide acceptance. The Country Land and Business Association expressed that Britain was losing competitive edge due to delays in providing broadband infrastructure.

Charles Trotman of CLA felt that the future of British Industry depended on broadband. While rest of the world would get on with it, British hopes would be smothered by conflicting reports.