Universal broadband 'crucial to British business'

Posted 1 year 6 months ago in: Broadband

Telappliant News: 2010-11-23

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Achieving universal broadband access is "an absolute must" to ensure British businesses, including those using VoIP services, can remain competitive in the long term, according to one expert.

Rowland O'Connor, editor of Broadband-Help.com, said rolling out high-speed internet is particularly important in order to support companies trying to compete in the international digital services market.

His comments come after secretary of state for culture, media and sport Jeremy Hunt announced earlier this year that due to funding constraints, the government had pushed back its deadline for achieving universal broadband access of two mbps from 2012 to 2015.

Mr O'Connor said while it is understandable in the current economic climate that digital infrastructure projects are being deferred, it is also important to look at the rollout of high-speed internet as an investment.

"Universal broadband access will stimulate digital media consumption, bringing jobs and increased prosperity to the UK," he argued.

Comments

Cliff Surgeoner

1 year 5 months ago

High speed broadband connectivity is an essential for business. So why is UK trumpeting its push for 2MBps when 29% of the EU is already on at least 10MBps.
As a fully converged business situated in Cornwall a few yards from a huge collection of transatlantic fibre optic cable connections, it is galling to have to rely on the local copper connections to get between 2 and 6MBps speeds. In fact the only way we have been able to run converged data successfully is to have two separate ADSL connections which we split one for Voice and one for data.
The Government should be aiming for universal fibre connections from the BT monopoly that still seems to own all the local copper.