Digital hubs central to next phase of UK broadband strategy
DECEMBER 6, 2010 By Stephen Hardy -- UK Secretary of State for Olympics, Culture, Media and Sport Jeremy Hunt today outlined the next phase of the Government’s plan to extend “superfast broadband” across the UK. The £830 million plan now includes a goal to establish digital hubs “in every community in the country.”
Secretary Hunt said the Government will put up £50 million to fund new test projects. While emphasizing that a well-connected commonwealth will require a mix of technologies, Secretary Hunt’s accompanying strategy document, “Britain’s Superfast Broadband Future,” states “it has to be recognised that high-capacity fibre optic deeper into the network is likely to be a key feature of the UK’s network going forward. Whether this is directly to people’s homes, a street cabinet or to a mast remains will depend on local circumstances.”
The Government envisions that the hubs will act as central digital points in each community. The hubs would connect to the nearest exchange. Each community would take responsibility for connecting its homes to the hub.
Other strategies and goals Secretary Hunt outlined include:
- ensuring access to existing infrastructure, including BT’s network of ducts and poles
- new guidance to builders and contractors on how to develop broadband-ready buildings
- the awarding of 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz spectrum for mobile services
- clarifying existing guidance on street works and micro-trenching to reduce the cost of infrastructure deployment
Hunt and the Government stressed a public/private partnership in achieving the plan’s goals, the most overarching of which is to develop Europe’s best broadband network by 2015. However, public funding will be essential in certain areas, Hunt said.
According to the strategy document, “Where local authorities determine that improved access to broadband is an essential component of their development plans, we aim to use the public investment to provide a network infrastructure upgrade. This is likely to include a mixture of network elements, including middle mile upgrades which will reduce investment costs. Our aim is to ensure every community has a point to which fibre is delivered, capable of allowing the end connection to the consumer to be upgraded – either by communities themselves, or since this will make the business case more viable, industry itself might choose to extend the network to the premise. We also want to ensure communities have the opportunity to further extend the reach of the network where demand exists.”
Further guidance on the new test projects is expected next April, with funding selections slated for the following month.
Ahead of today's announcement, BT reiterated last week its commitment to spend £2.5 billion to deploy FTTP to two-thirds of the UK by 2015, as well as test advanced GPON technology (see "BT to trial gigabit FTTP broadband"). BT said it would be willing to spend even more if it received some of the £830 million the Government plans to spend by 2017.