INCA Welcomes Jeremy Hunt's Ambitious Vision for Next Generation Broadband

On Tuesday 8th June, Secretary of State at DCMS, Jeremy Hunt MP made a very positive speech outlining his policies in media and technology (details and full text here). The Secretary of State said, "Our goal is simple: within this parliament we want Britain to have the best superfast broadband network in Europe." This is a tremendous ambition and one that all of us working to develop next generation broadband projects can support.

Although the Secretary of State did not announce any new government funding for next generation roll out he did confirm the Government's commitment to a universal service commitment of 2Mbps "as the very minimum that should be available" - funded from the digital switchover underspend. He welcomed investment announcements by BT and Virgin but also reiterated plans to help reduce the costs of next generation broadband roll out by pushing hard on infrastructure sharing (ducts, poles, sewers), with a commitment to legislation if required. In this context he helpfully mentioned work by Geo and Fibrecity (INCA members).

There was one unexpected announcement: to set up three three market testing projects to bring "superfast broadband to rural and hard-to-reach areas" INCA welcomes this initiative and is ready to offer useful and constructive expertise to Broadband Delivery UK which has the task of developing these pilots.

INCA CEO Malcolm Corbett, who was present at the speech, asked about support for local partnerships to facilitate NGA investment. The Secretary of State's response was positive: "The leadership of local authorities is very important and it's about helping to create local solutions, not imposing them from the centre."

Corbett commented, "It was a very positive speech, full of ambition for the UK's broadband infrastructure and the development of local media. Clearly commitments to major government funding are not on the cards at present, so we need to work within the framework being set out to reduce costs and help bring in investment from other sources. INCA members are good at both."