Fibre rollout could cost £15 billion

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The country could need investment of up to £15 billion to get all homes and businesses on a fibre broadband network, according to the former head of research at BT.

Peter Cochrane, a futurologist who ran BT’s research department between 1993 and 1999, has claimed in a blog post that the amount needed could range from £5 billion to as much as triple that, depending on the type of technology used and the way it is deployed.

However, even with the uncertainty of whose policy will come into play after the general election, prospective Government budget pledges sit in the millions rather than billions.

Claiming such pledges were an “insignificant amount”, Cochrane wrote: “In the mind of Government, the UK is at the forefront of the broadband revolution. Unfortunately, we are not even in the top 10.”

He added: “Our ranking is actually somewhere between 20th and 30th. So the clock is ticking. The UK has to grasp the nettle, stop all debate, and get on with the job.”

He also claimed that with the new 3D technologies emerging the UK “won’t be able to play” with the rest of the world unless we get our infrastructure in shape.

Private industry is playing its part, with investments of £1.5 billion by BT going into improving networks and ongoing trials by Virgin Media of superfast broadband, but raising £15 billion still seems quite a way off.

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