Fibre optics 'could help fight credit crunch'

The government has been called on to invest heavily in fibre optic technology by a Microsoft researcher.

Edinburgh University's professor Christopher Bishop, chief scientist at the firm's Cambridge research centre, told the Observer that the benefits of doing so would be two-fold.

Firstly, it would improve the UK's infrastructure - helping it compete globally - and secondly it would provide the large-scale kind of investment the government had pitched as a way of fighting off the worst effects of the economic downturn.

"If we are looking for a government project that would stimulate the economy in the short term and help combat the impact of the credit crunch, while also bringing long-lasting improvements to the nation's infrastructure, then we could do no better than rewire the nation with fibre optics," he told the newspaper.

The government has recently championed the idea of bringing forward large public works as a way of providing jobs and kick-starting the economy.

It has taken its inspiration from the 20th century economist John Maynard Keynes.