Digital Britain plans - too little, too late?

Lord Carter wants every UK home to 2Mbit/s broadband by 2012

The government’s much-anticipated Digital Britain report on plans for the UK’s technological transformation has raised expectations but so far delivered little, according to its critics.

The 22-point action plan was presented at the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR) last week by communications minister Lord Carter.

The 80-page interim report has piled pressure on the government, with hopes running high that the final report in April will result in definitive action to implement next-generation broadband access.

The plan covers wired and mobile networks, content and its delivery, and its recommendations are designed to bolster the economy and secure the UK’s global competitiveness.

“Our digital networks will be the backbone of our economy in the decades ahead,” said prime minister Gordon Brown. “We know that every aspect of our lives – every school, every hospital, every workplace and even every home – will depend on the services the digital network provides.”

Brown’s comments highlighted the fundamental role the national network infrastructure will play in any UK digital transformation, and the bulk of Carter’s interim report is devoted to this.

Strategies are outlined for “upgrading and modernising wired, wireless and broadband infrastructure”, and also “for a digital universal service commitment (USC) to be effective by 2012, delivered by a mixture of fixed and mobile, wired and wireless means”.

The plan suggests that rural parts of the UK would be serviced by mobile broadband, a strategy recently adopted by the Irish government in its national broadband scheme.

To the disappointment of ISPs, the report stuck to the position taken by regulator Ofcom and last autumn’s BERR-commissioned Caio report, preferring a regulatory environment for the private sector to roll out high-speed broadband rather than government investment.

“We ask the question, will the market get to 60-65 per cent [adoption] if we provide the right regulatory environment? The second question is what to do about the 30-35 per cent left – currently we don’t know enough,” said Carter.

To address this, Carter has established a government-led strategy group “to assess the necessary demand-side, supply-side and regulatory measures to underpin existing market-led investments plans, and to remove barriers to a timely rollout.”

When the Digital Britain report was commissioned in October 2008, culture secretary Andy Burnham said: “Now is the time to move from the think-tank phase to the delivery phase.”

That phrase came back to haunt Burnham in Parliament last week when shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt complained about the number of new consultations and reports proposed by Lord Carter being a poor substitute for actually deploying the requisite network.

Carter also faced criticism over the relatively slow network speed the USC would guarantee – 2Mbit/s.

“Isn’t the scale of the government’s ambitions pitifully low, simply saying it wants to ensure the whole population has access to half the current average speed by 2012?” said Hunt.

Liberal Democrat spokesman Don Foster said the report made disappointing reading. “Why have we got such low ambitions, such a low target?” he said. Investing in high-speed broadband could create 600,000 jobs in the UK but the government had only made a “vague commitment” on the issue, he added.

A further problem for the USC proposal is that in three years’ time, 2Mbit/s may be insufficient to service the requirements of new next-generation applications.

Report aims to boost knowledge economy

The government plan aims to secure Britain a place at the forefront of the global digital economy. The interim report contains more than 20 recommendations, including specific proposals on: next-generation networks; universal access to broadband; wireless radio spectrum holdings; digital radio; digital content rights; and the digital delivery of public services.

“This report sets out a strategy for building a knowledge economy where our most valuable assets are the skills and innovation that underpin our digital industries,” said business secretary Peter Mandelson.

The draft report is open for consultation until 12 March, with the final Digital Britain report being produced in April.

The full interim report is available here.