Shelving of universal broadband plans not a great loss

A broadband industry expert has recently spoken out about the decision of the coalition government to shelve universal broadband plans until the end of the current parliament in 2015.

It was recently announced by the government that due to funding issues, which it blamed on the former Labour government, it was shelving plans to provide universal broadband in the UK with speeds of at least 2Mbps by 2012, and instead had pushed back the deadline to the end of the current parliament, which will be 2015.

Whilst many people may have been disappointed with the decision to put the universal broadband plans on hold one industry expert has spoken out about the decision, indicating that it is no great loss and that the more important factor when it comes to the digital economy is fibre based broadband.

He stated that the 2Mbps broadband that had been promised by the government as part of the universal broadband rollout had hardly been worth having anyway, but that fibre optic broadband would make a huge difference when it came to the digital economy.

He stated: “There may still be hope for a more solid future, as the 2Mb target was almost not worth having as it was just a short-term sticking plaster anyway. The real hope for the long-term is in universal fibre broadband provision. It’s not come as any real surprise to most industry watchers that the 2012 target has been scrapped. I would say the writing’s been on the wall for a long time on this issue.”

Source – Comms-Express