Whilst a number of reports have highlighted how far behind the UK is in terms of broadband speeds compared to other countries, one industry official says there is no need to panic.

According to an industry official who has been looking into broadband technology in the UK there is no need for the nation to panic over reports of being left behind when it comes to super fast broadband compared to other countries. Francesco Caio is a former chief executive of Cable and Wireless, and is helping the government with policies on future Internet infrastructure.

After conducting some research Caio said that panic over high speed broadband connections in the UK was misplaced, adding that there was no need to panic and rush to try and catch up with other nations. The results of his research are due to be published in around three months time. He was asked to look into the issue after mounting panic over the nation being left behind when it came to the future of broadband.

Mr Caio said that there was no connection between the speed of broadband and take up levels, pointing out that whilst Japan has super fast broadband speeds in place the take up and usage is way behind that in the UK. He also said that having fibre networks that allow super fast speeds may not actually do anything to help the economy in terms of generating retail revenues online.

He said: “So can we infer that the sheer number of fibre connections in the ground is, alone, an indicator of a country’s competitiveness? Nobody doubts the centrality of a digital infrastructure for the future of both quality of life and the competitiveness of business. The issue is at what point in time that becomes absolutely critical, who should be paying and what the competitive forces we have to encourage are.”