Can Digital Britain be a copper-free zone?

A government digital communications consultation document raises the prospect of the UK's copper-based networks being switched off. But is such a drastic move feasible, or even desirable?

If the UK switched off its copper telephone network tomorrow, the vast majority of the population would be left without an internet connection or a landline. But in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)'s Digital Communications Infrastructure Strategy consultation document, the government has raised the prospect of doing just that. It is one of several scenarios that have been conjured up by the government in an effort to shape the future of network connectivity in the UK.

"As the coverage and level of service available on non-copper networks increases, the government is likely at some point to need to consider with operators and the regulator whether switching off copper networks is desirable from a commercial and a policy objective," it states.

Mark Collins, director of strategy and public affairs at fibre network provider CityFibre, says that the infrastructure that we have today, or indeed in the near future, is "unlikely to support the data and bandwidth of the world in 10 to 15 years' time". It's clear then that something has to change.

Playing catch-up

For years, independent bodies such as the Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) Council Europe have suggested that the UK needs to keep pace with the likes of South Korea and Scandinavian countries that have fully embraced FTTH capabilities, suggesting that it would hamper the UK economy if it failed to offer faster speeds. Incumbent provider BT provides FTTH, but it is only available in certain areas and according to the firm it is yet to be proven that there is a big demand for the service. It has no obligation to provide FTTH to every home, and in fact, despite the government's target to ensure that every premise in the UK has access to a minimum of 2Mbps broadband by 2017, BT has no legal obligation to actually make this happen.

The only universal state of conditions that BT currently has to adhere to is that it has to provide a functional internet connection to every home. The way those terms are phrased means that BT could just provide hard-to-reach places with what's known in the industry as Pots (plain old telephone service), and tell them to use dial-up.

But it's in this legal framework that the consultation becomes interesting, as for the first time the government could impose a new universal state of conditions - such as minimum speeds of 20Mbps for every household by 2020 - if this is what the consultation finds - and if BT (or any other broadband provider) did not comply with these conditions it could be fined by regulator Ofcom.

Otherwise, if the government merely sets another target, Collins suggests that Whitehall can't force BT to do anything but can merely "encourage it".

Scrap metal?

However, the prospect of England reaching a stage where copper networks could be turned off still seems very distant. First, as the government itself states, it would need to ensure that it "would not leave any consumers without the availability of communications services, including access to emergency services".

Secondly, any deadline would need to be sufficiently far in the future that it would not act as a disincentive to current planned investments, DCMS states; BT and other companies are after all continuing to invest in copper networks in order to provide hybrid solutions that are faster than those that are currently available.

Ovum analyst Michael Philpott believes that if DCMS did call for copper networks to be turned off, BT would say that it had already spent a certain amount of money on faster access technology (albeit not FTTH) and that since it is a private business with its own stakeholders, any new investment must make business sense.

Collins says that several questions need to be answered by the consultation: "First, whether there needs to be any universal service obligation, if so what should that level be, and if there is a cost for BT to achieve it, does it create a case for intervention from the state to achieve that."

Crucially, the consensus - even from BT rivals such as CityFibre and business network provider Exponential-e - is that the government should not focus on ruling out any specific means of connectivity.

"The review suggests that there is something wrong with the copper, as in the physical metal being used, and it misses the point," says Steven Harrison, lead technologist at Exponential-e.

Harrison insists that any decision should be based on the service provided not the technology used.

"Otherwise, a switch-off date is going to be met with a stonewall. [BT] will say ‘why turn it off? It works', and it would become an arbitrary reason," he explains.

Instead, Harrison suggests that the government proposes service levels to be of a minimum standard and then increase this standard every five years.

"In this way, the copper will have to eventually be retired to deliver the service [because technology based on copper will not be able to keep up]. It changes the discussion with BT in a big way - and I don't think BT would object to delivering a better service," he claims.

CityFibre's Collins adds that DCMS shouldn't leave BT to undertake a switch from copper to fibre on its own, and that other providers should get a look-in too.

Of utmost importance, Collins says, is that there shouldn't be a scenario where four different companies are using four different fibre-optic cables throughout the country.

"It doesn't make sense for so many communication lines to be physically located in the street," he says. "There needs to be some controlling policy on ensuring that private sector companies are not going to be building over each other, so that deployment and investment can benefit everyone and that networks are shared and left open."

BT said that it was "not in a position to comment" ahead of its submission to the consultation.

@Sooraj_Shah