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    Committee briefing: Digital Britain

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    10th March 2009

    ePolitix.com reports on Tuesday's business and enterprise committee evidence session on digital Britain.


    Communications minister Lord Carter revealed he expects proposals aimed at providing a legislative "backstop" for the protection of ownership rights to be announced this week.

    He also said a proposed Rights Agency that brought together internet service providers (ISPs) and rights owners would create a regulatory structure that served both their interests.

    However he recognised there had not been an "outbreak of harmony" between ISPs and rights owners following the publication of the Digital Britain interim report.

    Illegal activity should not be accepted or tolerated, but the "reality of technology" was forcing a rethink of traditional analogue business models, he added.

    Following the publication of the interim report in January, Lord Carter said that he hoped to publish the final Digital Britain recommendations before the summer parliamentary recess.

    MPs were told that it was unlikely that universal next generation broadband coverage would be achieved without public investment.

    Giving evidence before the business and enterprise committee, Lord Carter argued that business would have to be incentivised in order to achieve the goal of universal service provision.

    Given that service providers found it difficult to raise capital to build networks in less profitable areas than their own during the capital markets "hey day" of the 1990s, they would find it impossible to do so now, he added.

    Lord Carter acknowledged that the changes wrought by the digital economy had been far greater than initially envisioned, arguing that that "six years in the digital sector are the equivalent of 20 years in the energy sector."

    He said that the UK had been a "constructive driving force" for digital industries, and that he expected the UK to be able to achieve current generation universal broadband service by the target date of 2012.

    Lord Carter said that the government continued to believe a base level of service of a two-megabit connection was a reasonable target.

    Pressed by committee members on the effect digital media was having on traditional outlets such as television and newspapers, the minister said he did not think it was necessarily the role of government to ensure they survived.

    Carter said that new technologies were an "inescapable reality" and traditional forms of media would have to adapt.

    He said the issues facing traditional media were partly a function of recession, and partly function of more efficient means of advertisers reaching their audience.

    Google's success in attracting users, and subsequent advertising revenues, should not necessarily be criticised, he said.

    Addressing issues of content control and illegal file sharing, Lord Carter said that there was work going on across industry aimed at achieving "sensible self regulatory structures".

    The international and flexible nature of the internet meant that the imposition of a single unitary code of use would be unworkable, he argued.

    On net neutrality the minister argued that the emerging view was that it was not unreasonable for providers to differentiate in pricing for services.

    He said that the emergence of next generation broadband services coupled with universal broadband coverage made him question the "theological" view that users should be entitled to use the internet as they see fit.

    Carter said that a key advance made by fourth generation mobile technology was the packaging of voice, data, and video services.

    He said the government was focused on removing obstacles to the expansion of third generation and future fourth generation capacity.

    And he confirmed to the committee that the fourth generation spectrum is to be auctioned off before the digital switchover in 2013.

    Lord Carter said that the particular attachment of the British to radio meant that the government saw significant value in maintaining a dedicated Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) service.

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