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Lobby group says govt should aim for 10-Gbps broadband coverage to all premises by 2030.
The Institute of Directors (IoD) on Monday slammed the U.K.’s lack of ambition when it comes to ultrafast broadband rollout, and called for a 1,000-fold increase in the government’s minimum speed target.
Under the Universal Service Obligation, every household and business should have access to at least 10-Mbps broadband by 2020. In a new report, called Ultrafast Britain, the IoD has proposed a target of 10 Gbps by 2030.
"The government’s current target displays a distinct poverty of ambition," said Dan Lewis, the IoD’s senior advisor on infrastructure policy and author of the report. "We expect them to meet the Universal Service Obligation of 10 Mbps by 2020, but only because they’ve set themselves such a low bar."
78% of the IoD members surveyed in the report said "significantly" faster broadband would improve productivity, while 60% said it would make their business more competitive. 51% said it would enable them to offer more flexible working to staff.
The report comes after U.K. telco regulator Ofcom last week published the preliminary conclusions of its market review. It found that BT’s infrastructure arm Openreach still has the incentives to make decisions in the interests of its parent company rather than competing players.
In order to strengthen Openreach’s independence from BT, Ofcom has ordered it to provide physical infrastructure access (PIA), such as ducts and poles, that will enable rivals to deploy their own fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) networks.
Openreach must also consult competitors about its investment plans and offer greater transparency when it comes to the allocation of costs and assets between itself and the rest of BT.
"Ofcom has taken some positive steps forward, and we have seen in other countries that opening up ducts and poles to other providers can lead to a rapid expansion in fibre coverage," Lewis said on Monday.
The IoD’s survey revealed that only a third of members who have had interaction with Openreach – such as line installation or repairs – were happy with the service they received. They were also more inclined to think BT’s ownership of Openreach has been negative, rather than positive, for U.K. broadband.
Going forward, Lewis warned that "BT Group will still be able extract value from competitors paying to use Openreach’s network, so Ofcom must keep a watchful eye on the situation, and consider asking the Competition and Markets Authority to do a full market review if they don’t see significant improvements."
