In the slow lane

Yesterday, in DCMS Questions, I raised with the Secretary of State, Andy Burnham, the proposal in the interim Digital Britain report that there should be a Universal Service Commitment to broadband at a minimum speed of 2 megabits per second by 2012; wasn’t this a very unambitious target, I asked, when speeds of 50 mbps were already available in urban areas, and didn’t it mean that rural areas were likely to fall further behind? 

The Secretary of State’s answer was, I felt, unconvincing:

“These are primarily matters for the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, but Lord Carter is looking at them closely in the context of the final “Digital Britain” report, and I will ensure that the hon. Gentleman’s comments are brought to his attention. In any universal service obligation it is important that all parts of the country are able to benefit; indeed, that is the purpose of such a commitment. It has an historic potential to ensure that, as with postage and telephony, all citizens of this country have access to the highest quality communications infrastructure -and that applies to all parts of the United Kingdom.”

Well, apparently it doesn’t apply to all parts of the UK.  In this morning’s Telegraph, Lord Carter, the author of the report, acknowledges that he has already accepted that a large part of the country will not enjoy the fastest broadband:

 There will “certainly be 25-30 per cent of the country where there will be no economic case for building a next generation fixed network,” he says.

In some areas, faster broadband could be delivered using mobile, wireless and satellite networks, he says. 

By past standards, 2 mbps is pretty fast and, if mobile broadband can be made ubiquitous, speeds of up to 7.2 mbps can theoretically be made available. 

However, with broadband speeds in towns and cities of 50 mbps and rapidly rising, a mobile-based service is umlikely to be sufficient to cope with the bright new multimedia future Lord Carter enthuses about:

 “There is an international appetite for super-fast broadband. When most of our online activity is videocentric as opposed to datacentric, we’ll be in a different world. And that videocentricity is going to come in under five years. In less than 10 years, we will be in a complete ‘on demand’ television world.”

 Not if you live in rural North Wales, you won’t. 

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) has already come out fighting:

“This digital urban/rural divide is getting out of control. It is time for the hyperbole to stop and for Government to consider the damage it is doing to rural areas and, in particular, businesses.

“Lord Carter talks of a video-centric world. In reality we have a world where social and economic deprivation is growing because of a lack of access to fast internet connections.

“The economy is being divided because many rural businesses simply cannot compete with their urban rivals. School classes are split because of some children’s inability to do set homework online. Communities are being divided because people are seeking to move to a home that has broadband.”

The CLA is, of course, right.  Lack of broadband at acceptable speeds will soon be as synonymous with deprivation as a lack of a telephone service or mains electricity.

Lord Carter, with respect, is being much too sanguine.  I hope that he will rethink  the broadband section of his report before its final publication.