The market should be left to its own devices when it comes to
investing in
next generation broadband, said cabinet office minister Tom
Watson, speaking at the Labour party conference yesterday.
He said the government will not intervene, but instead will
leave it to companies such as BT and
Virgin Media to come up with a plan for investment and a
business model for rolling out high bandwidth internet across the
UK.
"It is a new, emerging market and companies should be left to
develop their own business model." he said.
The government, however, will review the situation in two or
three years, if a successful business model has not been developed
by the companies involved.
The MP for West Bromwich was speaking at a fringe meeting hosted
by the IPPR and Virgin Media at the Labour party conference.
Kip Meek, from the
Broadband Stakeholder Group and Dominic Morris from Ofcom
agreed there should be minimum government intervention.
But Vic Keegan, a technology commentator, said demand for high
bandwidths is growing, with the increase of
video conferencing and services such as the BBC iPlayer.
"We must not lock ourselves into a situation where there cannot
be intervention," he said.
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