Thenew minister for overseeing broadband
developmentin the UK will face a challenge in
deciding how the government should intervene toimprove broadband access.
Shriti Vadera replaces
Stephen Timms' in the post of communications minister at the
Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform.
She will take over from Timms, who had been in talks with
internet service providers (ISPs) in November about how to improve
broadband access in the UK and faces the challenge of deciding how
the government should encourage private investment in broadband
networks.
Gareth Thomas, minister for trade and development, said that the
biggest challenge for the government remained encouraging
investment from the private sector to build fast broadband
networks.
"There is no obvious business case for the private sector to
invest in networks," he said.
Thomas said renewing the telecoms infrastructure in the UK was a
priority. He had seen positive signs from ISPs that they were
willing to talk with government about ways they could make
investments together, rather than have the government intervene
with potentially "disruptive" effects to the broadband market.
Neil Berkett, CEO of broadband provider Virgin Media, said the
government's current "hands-off" approach to regulating investment
in broadband was the right one and warned off intervention.
"Regulation is neither necessary nor recommended. It would
disincentivise companies from investing in networks," said
Berkett.
He said the government had a role to play in educating UK
businesses about the technical set-ups they needed to optimise
their broadband connections, as well as creating demand for higher
speed broadband by informing businesses about how they could best
use broadband applications.
Andy Carter, assistant director of the ICT infrastructure and
applications policy at the Department of Business, Enterprise &
Regulatory Reform, said the decision for government to intervene in
encouraging broadband investment in areas where it would be
uneconomic for operators to do so, through regulation, was
difficult to answer.
"It is not as simple as the government going in and making the
investment. Competition in the UK broadband market so far has meant
more people are getting faster speeds at a lower price," he
said.
He said the government was conscious of the needs of businesses
and that regulation could be a key factor in ensuring the gap
between rural and urban broadband speeds was not exasperated.