Good noises but no substance from Hunt on broadband

15 September 2011

CWU welcomes Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt's speech at the Royal Television Society Cambridge Convention last night (Wednesday), when he acknowledged the government's plans for broadband are not making sufficient progress to deliver the best broadband network in Europe by 2015. However, Jeremy Hunt did not put forward a credible alternative, and the promise to offer easier access to BT's physical infrastructure and improve competition will go nowhere near achieving the government's broadband objectives, says communications union CWU.

Billy Hayes, CWU general secretary said: “It is a relief to see the government has recognised the UK is failing to build a world class broadband network for the UK. But Jeremy Hunt said nothing yesterday to suggest the government is going to commit much needed additional investment to this project. Without a stronger lead from government, a more coherent strategy and more public money available for rural broadband, the UK's broadband network will continue to fall behind those of other countries.

“After Nick Clegg's warnings on the economy, and Jeremy Hunt's acknowledgement that not enough is being done on broadband, it's time for the government to create a credible plan capable of delivering a UK broadband network fit for the 21st Century. Failure to do so poses a great threat to the nation's economy and the long-term financial security of the telecoms sector.”

Andy Kerr, CWU deputy general secretary, added: “Improving access to physical infrastructure, including BT's ducts and poles, is something the coalition government has been talking about since last year. If this is the best the government can come up with then they are wasting a golden opportunity to help revive the UK economy by building a key plank of national infrastructure that will create jobs and drive growth.

"Setting their stall on forcing BT to lower its prices for competitor access to its ducts and poles is a gamble that could compromise BT's investment in the infrastructure which other communications providers will rely on to deliver their services. It is also unlikely to incentivise broadband rollout in sparsely populated regions where it is more expensive with fewer paying customers.

“The government must stop putting its faith in competition to deliver broadband services where the market has already failed, and step in to ensure that sufficient public funds are available to take faster broadband to those areas where the case for investment is weak. It also needs to set out a coherent strategy for broadband which recognises that local projects like Digital Region in South Yorkshire are already failing, and focus on delivering large scale projects that can benefit from economies of scale, helping to ensure equal levels of access across the UK.”

Overseas governments both in Europe and beyond are aware of the limitations of market-led solutions and are pro-actively investing in their broadband networks. The £830m committed by the UK government for broadband until 2017 is a fraction of the French government's £570m every year until 2025, or Australia's £21bn broadband investment.

CWU believes that giving access to BT's ducts and poles will do little to boost the rollout of high speed broadband across the country.

CWU supports a levy, as proposed by the last government, to fund comprehensive rollout of a superfast broadband infrastructure.

---

Press releases, papers and documents published on this page are the intellectual property of an organisation unrelated to Central Lobby. We promote their parliamentary and political campaigning activities as they are subscribers to the Central Lobby service.

As such, Central Lobby does not edit, endorse, or attempt to balance the opinions expressed on this page. The content of press releases and other such types of content are the responsibility of the originating organisation.