UK telecoms industry should pay for super-fast broadband

Telecoms companies will have to foot the bill, expected to run to billions of pounds, for the next generation of super-fast broadband across the UK, according to the former boss of Cable & Wireless, who was asked by the Government to review the British broadband market.Francesco Caio, vice chairman of Lehman Brothers in Europe, who led the review into the future of broadband for the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and the Treasury, said the Government must not be “complacent” about the next generation roll out but that a case for state subsidy was “weak at best”.To read this article in The Times in full, see business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article4744367.ece.Also see:UK government advised not to pump cash into next generation broadband
The telecoms industry, not the government, will need to stump up the billions of pounds needed to introduce the next generation of super-fast broadband networks, according to the former boss of Cable & Wireless who was appointed by the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform and the Treasury to look at the British broadband market.But Francesco Caio said the government could help reduce the estimated £5.1bn to £28.8bn cost of installing super-fast broadband by coordinating the digging up of streets so that fibre optic lines can be installed, opening up national infrastructure such as sewers so cables can be installed and relaxing the rules on where overhead wires can be erected.To read this article in The Guardian in full, see www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/13/telecoms.internetphonesbroadband.