The government’s Industry Day summit on Thursday to launch its key broadband policies risks missing out on some of the key ideas on how to tackle the UK’s big problems according to Point Topic, the broadband data analysts.
Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Culture, who leads the Coalition’s policy for broadband, has set two main objectives – to make sure that everyone can get at least two-megabits per second broadband by the end of 2012, and to give Britain the best superfast broadband network in Europe by 2015. The Industry Day is intended to set out the policy in more detail and win industry support for carrying it out.
Tim Johnson, Chief Analyst at Point Topic, is concerned that some of the most important ideas for turning these ambitious policies into reality will not even get discussed at the Industry Day. Two things he believes are essential if the policy is going to be successful; first, to ensure competitors in the broadband market have access to the information they need to invest in the new networks and second, to recognise that the task is bigger than expected.
One example of where the broadband industry needs to have open access to information is the location of BT’s street cabinets. Most of the individual cabinets are sitting on the pavement, visible to everyone, but knowing where they all are, across the whole UK, is vital to targeting investment, whether it’s for the “two-meg minimum” or full next generation access.
At the moment, BT has the data of course and provides it to the other big ISPs. But BT is refusing to make general information available to anyone else, whether they are competing altnets (alternative networks), local government planners, or data specialists such as Point Topic.
“In our view, obliging BT and similar companies to open their infrastructure data to the market is the single most effective measure the government could take to create the superfast broadband network it wants,” says Johnson.
The other area where Point Topic believes new thinking is required is on the size of the task of bringing broadband of at least 2Mbps to everyone in the country. Current policy is focused on the fact that relatively few homes and businesses – about 2 million, 7% of the total – are unable to get at least 2Mbps at present.
Point Topic believes this is roughly correct. Unfortunately, the 2 million premises are not in clearly defined areas which are easily reached. In typical marginal broadband areas, many homes can get 2Mbps but many others cannot. The only way to reach the have-nots is to engineer a service upgrade for the whole area. Point Topic estimates that the areas which will need to be upgraded in this way cover over 5 million homes and businesses, or about 18% of all the premises in the UK.
One danger is that shortage of money and the search for clear wins will drive the two-meg minimum programme to concentrate on areas which are well beyond 2Mbps range. If that happens the Coalition will have failed on one of its flagship policies, and a large number of people – a significant proportion of voters in many constituencies – will be left disappointed.
