Monthly Archives - December 2007

The BSG has submitted its response to Ofcom’s consultation ‘Future broadband: Policy approach to next generation access’.

Our response notes that the regulatory environment is just one element of the debate that needs to be resolved to enable the UK to move towards NGA, but welcomes the consultation as a step forward in creating the right conditions for timely and efficient investment in NGA. Among the key points in the report are as follows.

• There is a need for greater regulatory certainty in order for investment decisions regarding NGA to be made.
• How Ofcom’s regulatory principles will be applied in practice needs to be explored, and scenarios for NGA deployment should be examined in this context.
• Further work is needed to identify at which level competition in an NGA world will be efficient, sustainable and valuable.
• On past experience it is reasonable to assume that market led deployment is likely to fall short of universal or near universal deployment. The BSG is working with stakeholders to identify models for efficient public sector intervention in cases of market failure.

BSG response to Ofcom NGA consultation

The Broadband Stakeholder Group has appointed Plum Consulting to undertake research into the economic and social value of next generation broadband to the UK

This research has been commissioned in response to Recommendation 1 in the BSG’s ‘Pipe Dreams?’ report, which highlighted the need to define the framework for measuring the economic and social value of next generation broadband in order to create an evidence base that can support policy making.

Plum, together with the BSG, will develop a conceptual framework for understanding the potential economic and social value that could accrue from the widespread availability and take-up of next generation broadband services, and the social and economic shortfall that might result from late deployment or incomplete coverage or adoption. The work is being supported by BERR and the Ofcom Consumer Panel.

The final report will be published in the Spring of 2008.