Britons need Broadband - Net.Matters - June 2009

In last month's edition of Net.Matters we reported on data collated by the BBC showing that broadband "notspots" were not just restricted to rural areas as previously thought - consumers' location in relation to an exchange was key to the speed of service available.  As many as 3 million homes may have speed issues - less than 2 megabits per second. 

New research from a panel of government advisers to Ofcom - the Communications Consumer Panel suggests that consumers now view broadband provision as important as other utility services such as electricity or water and of those questioned (made up from 16 focus groups and 2,000 UK-wide respondees), 73% stated that a high-speed connection was important. 

As chair of the Communications Consumer Panel, Anna Bradley said: "The key message is that people think broadband is at a tipping point.  It's fantastically useful for everyone, essential for some now, but will be essential for everyone in the near future.  It is being compared by consumers to gas and electricity - things which they think we all ought to have access to, almost as a right."

And as more online services become available and are used so extensively, so those that do not have access to broadband will miss out on financial services, shopping, public service information, as well as entertainment services. 

The Panel suggested that consumers support a universal broadband provision to enable everyone to access online content - but the survey showed a mixed response for whether it was the government's responsibility to subsidise broadband.  The research findings have now been submitted to the government's Digital Brain report which outlines the internet strategy to be deployed.  Coming out from the report publication this month, MPs sitting on the Commons Business and Enterprise Committee will be investigating key elements of the report.  Questions such as whether delivering all homes with at least 2 Mb per second by 2012 is achievable (or will be obsolete in 3 years time anyway); is the broadband tax fair (everyone with a fixed line telephone will pay 50p extra per month on their phone bill); and even if this source of funding adequate - all these issues and more will be covered by the committee between now and the autumn. 

In the wake of this new research, BT has announced it will be rolling out faster broadband over the next year.  Starting this summer, BT plan to upgrade to ADSL2+ technology - reaching 40% of the UK this year, and 55% of the UK by March 2010.  This could mean that consumers that sign up for a new 12-month contract could benefit from speeds of up to 20 Mb per second.  However, BT confirmed that traffic management (cutting the speed during peak periods for those customers taking out the cheapest broadband package) will still remain in force.