Joint memorandum submitted by the Department
for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Department of Trade
and Industry (S46)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The UK government target for broadband is for
the UK to have the most extensive and competitive broadband market
in the G7 by 2005, with significantly increased broadband connections
to schools, libraries, further education colleges and universities.
Details of the government's policy and strategy are set out in
UK Online Annual Report 2002 (available at http://www.e-envoy.gov.uk/oee/oee.nsf/sections/esummit-ukoannrep/$file/indexpage.htm).
Stimulating broadband across the whole of the
UK, especially in rural and remote areas, is one of the Government's
top priorities. At the moment over two thirds of households can
access an affordable broadband service. This is ahead of other
countries such as France and Italy. However, we recognise that
we need to do more to make broadband available in all parts of
the country.
The Government does not believe that there is
a case for general subsidy. In the main part we believe that the
competitive market which has brought about the current level of
availability should be allowed and encouraged to roll out services
where it believes this to be economically viable and to develop
innovative approaches to doing so. Evidence of market innovation
exists, for example:
— the registration schemes run by BT
and by Liberty Broadband, stimulating and validating demand to
reduce the risk on investment;
— the development of new technologies
such as wireless that are in the pipeline—and more spectrum
will be made available in coming months;
— satellite services becoming more
affordable.
But there are powerful levers for Government
where the market will not deliver:
— Public sector expenditure on broadband.
We will be spending over £1 billion on public sector connectivity.
Aggregation of this demand can have a significant positive impact
on industry investment and availability of broadband.
— Regional economic development. Regional
Development Agencies (RDAs) will have £1.8 billion to spend
next year on regional economic development. Where broadband is
a significant barrier to economic development it would be legitimate
for them to spend some of that money on this.
— We have already given the RDAs and
devolved administrations £30 million for pilot projects to
help them learn what will work in extending availability and take-up
(the UK Broadband Fund).
— European structural funds are another
source of funding where applicable—for example the ACTNOW
project in Cornwall (£5 million of EU funds) will result
in 13 exchanges being broadband enabled.
To bring together public sector aggregation
and regional development agendas we launched the UK Broadband
Taskforce in November 2002. Through the Taskforce DTI has put
a Broadband Co-ordinator with business experience in each region
and devolved authority to spread good practice and make things
happen.
Defra is the Government department with responsibility
for championing rural issues, and developing rural solutions.
Defra is aware that the Government's target to have the most extensive
and competitive broadband market in the G7 by 2005, which was
developed before Defra came into existence, could be met even
if there was no broadband availability in rural areas. However,
DTI, Defra and the rest of Government are working to achieve extended
availability of broadband networks into rural areas in spite of
this.
Defra is committed to working with and through
others to ensure that rural areas are not disadvantaged by non-availability
of affordable broadband solutions. Defra is particularly concerned
that the potential of broadband for delivering government services,
and increasing the productivity of businesses is available in
rural areas.
Defra is:
— Building information on the potential
uses of broadband in rural areas and collecting information on
current projects and best practice.
— Researching evidence of the use of
broadband to increase productivity of businesses in rural areas,
which includes a third of all small businesses.
— Seconding a member of staff to DTI
to work with them on broadband policy and in particular on the
Government's strategy for extending rural broadband availability.
— Consulting and working closely with
stakeholders.
Defra believes that there powerful levers available
to extend broadband in rural areas particularly through using
public sector procurement to bring broadband to rural areas, working
closely with the RDAs. Defra and DTI are co-operating closely
on these issues and considering how a specific contribution to
tackling rural broadband issues can be achieved.
INTRODUCTION
Broadband is the term used to describe a wide
range of technologies that allow high bandwidth data transmission
(high-speed) and always-on access to the internet and other electronic
services.
The Broadband Stakeholder Group defines broadband
as:
"always on access, at work, at home or on the
move provided by a range of fixed line, wireless and satellite
technologies to progressively higher bandwidths capable of supporting
genuinely new and innovative interactive content, applications
and services and the delivery of enhanced public services."
The current technologies through which broadband
can be delivered are briefly described below, with more detailed
descriptions in Appendix One.
DESCRIPTION OF
MAIN BROADBAND
TECHNOLOGIES:
xDSL
DSL technologies "enable" broadband
services to be delivered over the existing copper loops that extend
into all households and businesses with a fixed telephone line,
but the technology is only effective when used over limited distances
(about 5.5km from the local exchange). The most common version
of DSL in the UK is ADSL, or Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line,
('asymmetric' because download speeds are faster than upload speeds).
Cable Modem
Broadband provided along cable networks. Cable
modem services are also often asymmetric.
Fixed Wireless Access
Broadband fixed wireless access allows users
to take advantage of cheap, fast internet and multimedia access
through radio links rather than down a line.
Satellite
Satellite can be used to provide one-way broadband
(with a return path via a normal telephone line) or two-way (where
the return path is via the satellite). Satellite technology has
the advantage that it is capable of reaching remote rural areas
where other types of provision may not be technically feasible
or economically viable. However it is currently more expensive
and suffers from some limitations due to the inherent latency
in the system (ie timelags while the signal travels to and from
a satellite).
Powerline
Broadband delivered along electricity lines.
Experimental in the UK, with trials currently underway.
Fibre
Fibre to the building offers a high-speed connection
at delivery rates above those achievable with DSL technologies.
Installation costs increase with the distance from the end user
to the fibre node and are higher than copper. This cost means
that fibre is mostly only found at large sites that have a heavy
need for high-speed data, although smaller sites situated near
to a fibre node can be served as well. In addition, the use of
fibre to distribution points (eg street cabinets) may become economic
over time.
Leased lines
Leased lines are permanent telecommunications
links supplied by network operators to users, which provide capacity
dedicated to the user's exclusive use. They can be bought at a
variety of speeds from 64 kbps to 1 Gbps. At lower speeds they
may be copper cables but at higher speeds will generally be optical
fibre. Because they are a "made to measure" solution
they are more expensive than the mass-market products described
above. They are used by large businesses and some SMEs to carry
high volumes of voice and data traffic.
3G
Broadband along mobile networks delivering fast
internet access on the move. However, bandwidth is likely to be
limited and costs higher than non-mobile alternatives.
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