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Analysis: Digital Britain eyes 2012 goal

Digital Britain plans will need good managing and the involvement of a range of industry insiders.

By David Neal, 29 Jan 2009 at 16:18

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The final Digital Britain report is expected in June this year.

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Lateral Thinking

The reality is that the cost of digging up roads is colossal and likely beyond the budget of any one commercial organisation. Given the current economic circumstances, whether the capital could be raised in the first place let alone repaid with a profit, is highly questionable. The argument about 'remote country' areas is a bit of a red herring because as with any problem, you need to break it down into its key parts. The Government shouldn't become a 'supplier' but it could fund a solid backbone that ISPs and Telecos could plug into and pay for the use of.

There are two physical structures, mainly on the surface that provide pretty natural routes for such a backbone, the Railway Tracks and Electricity - The National Grid both of which have maintenance teams looking after the physical structure, adding a few Fibre Optic experts would surely not be a problem.

If we still had the majority of people having their milk delivered each day, the Milkman being also the Postman would make sense just as in some rural areas, the Post Office van also doubles as a mini bus service, this idea then is just a variation on that.

It would then be a normal commercial decision for any ISP or Teleco to decide to dig up the roads to supply a particular Town closest to the "backbone".

By Bikey2 on Friday Jan 30

Chris Stening, MD Easynet Connect & UKOnline

The Internet is arguably the UK’s most important modern infrastructure. Homes and businesses across the UK rely on their Internet connections everyday, so any measures to bring the technology to as many people as possible is a good thing.

The question remains as to how the UK’s broadband should be delivered; through the existing copper phone network (DSL), fibre optics or wireless? Many argue that fibre is the only solution, resulting in copper being committed to the scrap heap prematurely. But fibre, having been around since the 1970s, is hardly a ‘new’ technology either. If the government wants to commit to broadband in every home, then the phone lines that run into almost every house in the country offer a ready-made solution. Copper based connections can easily exceed the 2Mbps speeds that Lord Carter’s report calls for, and recent innovations have reached speeds of 40Mbps. This is more than enough for most homes and business today.

By Ip_chrisstening4 on Friday Jan 30