The UK lags behind European competitor nations in its
use of information and communications technology (ICT) because of
the relatively high prices charged to access the services,
a
study of 154 countrieshas found.
The
International
Telecommunications Union (ITU) has developed two tools, the ICT
Development Index and the ICT Price Basket, that allow direct
comparisons of countries' ICT use and prices.
The index combines 11 indicators related to ICT access, use and
skills, such as fixed and mobile telephones, households with a
computer, the number of internet users, and literacy levels.
High cost restricts use
It found the UK was the world's 10th most active user of ICT,
but prices were relatively high. It found among the 154 countries
studied, there was a direct relationship between the price
consumers pay and their use of ICT, in particular fixed and mobile
telephony and internet broadband.
Slow uptake is often related to pricing, it said. This has
implications for UK communications minister Stephen Carter as he
seeks a
universal service of
"
up to 2mbps" in Britain.
Ofcom said yesterday it will "ensure that any regulatory pricing
allows investors the opportunity to earn a rate of return that
genuinely reflects the cost of deployment and the associated level
of risk". Further, it will allow BT and other large network
operators to set their wholesale prices for high-speed links "to
enable returns appropriate to the considerable risks of building
new networks".
BT said last year it was prepared to spend £1.5bn on making
40mbps downloads possible, with a 15mbps upload service to 40% of
the country's homes, provided it was allowed to earn a decent
return. This was based on installing optical fibre to the roadside
cabinets rather than to homes or businesses.
Hartwig Tauber, director general of the
Fibre to the Home (FTTH)
Council of Europe, a lobby group for optical fibre network
roll-out, said, "All the network operators know the end-game is to
install fibre to the building and to provide at least a symmetrical
100mbps service (i.e. both uploads and downloads) with quality of
service guarantees. There may be some interim steps, but that is
where we will end up."
Britain falling behind
Tauber was encouraged that Ofcom recognised the need for new
regulation to encourage broadband investment, but he was
disappointed by
Britain's failure to make the top 100 countries with fibre to
the home.
"When BT launched Openreach [its wholesale service], we [in
Europe] thought the UK was ahead in installing next-generation
networks. But it has not happened because the UK has been fixated
on 2mbps," he said.
The ITU said worldwide there had been most progress on ICT
access. This includes fixed and mobile telephony, internet
bandwidth and households with computers and internet. Usage rates
had grown much less.
"In particular, broadband, a more recent technology, still has
to take off in many countries," it said.
The ITU expected broadband delivered by mobile telephone
technologies to be a major factor in the short term. "Given the
rapid spread of IMT-2000/3G mobile cellular networks in many
countries, including in the developing world, there is a clear
potential for mobile broadband to connect more and more people, and
at higher speed," it said.