CMA welcomes Caio report

The Communications Management Association (CMA) has welcomed the recent report on next-generation access (NGA) by Francesco Caio, vice chairman of Lehman Brothers Europe.

It specifically supports the proposal in the report that telecoms and internet companies should finance NGA infrastructure with Ofcom leadership, supported by the government.

David Harrington, regulatory forum leader at the CMA, also agreed that government money was unnecessary.

"The CMA believes that in rejecting the case for an immediate injection of government subsidy, but recommending an immediate start on policy initiatives (and their associated planning), this will encourage and facilitate national broadband coverage, thus echoing CMA's long-term stance," he said.

Mr Harrington added that many of the things in the report, such as making new buildings fibre-friendly and resolving the problem of unfair business rates on infrastructure, had been "addressed or protested" by the CMA in the past.

According to Mr Caio, the UK is not going to suffer from a lack of an extensive NGA network in the near future, despite strong growth in broadband demand.

However, he believed it was the right time to lay the conditions which would provide NGA infrastructure in the next five years.