Broadband demand 'hard to quantify'

One of the main difficulties in providing the UK with super-fast broadband is that demand for the technology is "very hard to quantify", according to Ofcom.

Roger Darlington, a member of the watchdog's Consumer Panel, was speaking at the Westminster eForum keynote seminar on next-generation broadband.

He explained that "there's almost a kind of blame game going on", where consumers are asking the communications industry to prove that super-fast access would be desirable, but the industry cannot do this without putting together a business case, which it will not do until it sees demand.

"The whole history of communications is [riddled] with an inability to indicate in advance precise demand," Mr Darlington explained.

He added that many people had failed to see the need for broadband, asking: "What was wrong with dial-up?"

Ofcom published an executive summary on super-fast broadband delivery in September, which revealed that in less than eight years, broadband had reached 58 per cent of British households.