Super-fast broadband must be 'important' for work

People must require super-fast broadband for their working practices if demand for the technology is to increase, according to a member of the Parliamentary Information Technology Committee (PITCOM).

Speaking at the Westminster eForum seminar on next-generation broadband, Nick Palmer MP explained that application providers will not begin producing software requiring super-fast connections while the infrastructure is not there.

However, the companies that would invest in infrastructure are in turn reluctant to do so until there are actual viable applications that need it.

While this is usually a situation where "governments come into their own", he said it was important that a distinction was made between 'must-have' and 'would like to have' applications.

"We need to try to get to the point where it helps an important part of people's work and at that point communities will begin demanding again, in the same way that they began demanding broadband," he concluded.

Roger Darlington, from Ofcom's Consumer Panel, previously explained to the eForum that demand for super-fast broadband was "hard to quantify".