More subsidies are required for broadband warns expert

The future deployment of new fibre-to-the-cabinet fibre optic broadband network by BT is likely to cost more than the network operator can afford and will require more investment from other areas according to comments from a broadband expert.

Without support from external bodies there will be no significant deployment of high-speed broadband service options across the UK says a spokesman for Point Topic, which is an independent organisation that specialises in providing the telecommunications industry with data services.

Proposals for the implementation of taxes on phone lines that would provide a level of subsidy towards the deployment of a fibre optic broadband technology was one of the possible options that was raised by the Digital Britain report explained the chief analyst for Point Topic, Tim Johnson.

He later added, however, that it had been suggested by BT that an increased involvement from the public sector would be required for the installation of a network based on a fibre-to-the-cabinet system, which he saw as a “shot across the bows of the Tory party – who don’t like this kind of thing”.

Mr Johnson advised “[Fibre-based technology] will not reach more remote areas without subsidy. And [these areas] are not terribly remote, they are only mildly remote.”

In order for the whole country to be bought to the same broadband speeds there will need to be a lot of work done on the UK’s broadband infrastructure, although the decision by BT to increase high-speed broadband connections by almost double “could be a bit of a milestone” he concluded.

The conservative party would, however, scrap the telephone line taxes that were being proposed by the government, which was designed to partially fund the implementation of better broadband by raising £175 million, according to a statement earlier in the week by the shadow secretary of state for culture, media and sports.