MPs to investigate broadband Britain

BT is rolling our fibre-based broadband

The Commons Business and Enterprise Committee has launched a formal inquiry into broadband speed in Britain.

The all-party committee of MPs will challenge whether the target of 2Mbit/s for universal broadband by 2012 is ambitious enough and whether the government is right to propose in its Digital Britain report a 50p levy on copper phone lines to fund next-generation access.

The MPs have called for written evidence from interested parties by Friday 25 September and will then hold a series of hearings before reaching conclusions and publishing a report.

The committee is eager to establish whether the industry agrees the government's plans for next-generation access will work and whether ISPs are currently delivering the speeds which they claim to be offering to subscribers.

Many experts have questioned the proposed 2Mbit/s minimum bandwidth for delivering broadband to every home in the UK, pointing out that many countries are already well ahead of this speed and that some are aiming for as much as 100Mbit/s or more.

The 50p “broadband tax” announced in the Digital Britain report is meant to help fund the rollout of superfast broadband in the UK, and will be targeted at providing services outside of the areas where it is commercially viable for telecoms providers BT and Virgin Media to provide high-speed fibre-based services.