PM Pledges to Provide Fast Broadband for all by 2020

Gordon Brown is expected to make an announcement on Wednesday in which he will promise to provide high speed broadband for every house in the country by 2020. The PM is expected to equate broadband with "the electricity of the digital age" and suggest that speeds of over 50mb are to be provided for all.

The idea of 'broadband for all' is not a new one, the Government's Digital Britain Report was published in June 2009 and recommended providing high speeds for all. As I wrote back in July "They believe that broadband is essential for everyone from school children to big business in order to strengthen the economy and reduce poverty. Children from homes without an internet connection tend to get, on average, lower grades. Businesses need fast connections in order to compete with the global market."



If Labour win the next election they plan to create a 'broadband tax' in order to raise money to improve the country's broadband infrastructure. The tax, which has be opposed by the Tories, will take the form of a 50p per month levy on landlines. The PM expects this tax to raise between £175m and £200m per year. Given the easy availability of contract SIMs this could be yet another nail in the coffin of fixed line services.

The Government also plans to move public services online giving each person in the UK a personal webpage from which they will apply for Passports, submit tax claims and claim housing benefit etc. This plan would save the government millions of pounds although it would also result in lost jobs and potential lack of data security.

"Faster broadband speeds will bring new, cheaper, more personalised and more effective public services to people. It will bring games and entertainment options with new levels of sophistication. So one vision for Digital Britain would create two nations: one digitally privileged, one digitally deprived. And this will mean a massive penalty in economic development to those who are denied access because of a failure of government to rise to the challenge where markets fail. The alternative is our vision: ensuring, not simply hoping for, universal coverage."
Gordon Brown

It is not yet clear how Mr Brown intends to provide 'broadband for all'. Previous plans have included expanding mobile broadband coverage to include deprived rural areas, given the speeds expected to be promised mobile broadband alone would not be enough.

50 Million Mobile Broadband Users Predicted in the Middle East by 2013

Mobile phone ownership rates are high in the Middle East and rising fast, in the UAE for example the penetration rate is 198.6 percent meaning there are on average two handsets per person. The latest worldwide success story in the telecoms world is undoubtedly mobile broadband and predictably it is taking off fast in the Middle East.



It has recently been predicted by Informa Telecoms & Media that mobile broadband subscription levels in the region could reach 50 million by 2013. To put this is perspective this would be more people connecting via a mobile broadband dongle than currently connect by any method.

"In the MEA region, there is no doubt that mobile broadband adoption will grow faster than the global average. We have observed that in some of the regional markets, mobile broadband services are attracting the majority of net additions. Very soon, mobile broadband will become the preferred option to access the internet, and I would estimate that by 2015 the total number of subscribers will reach 50 million."

Zoran Vasiljev of Value Partners

The lack of infrastructure in the Middle East means that mobile broadband is seen as a good alternative to a fixed line connection. As the coverage levels and speeds increase data traffic is expected to raise by 1,587 percent. The flexibility and portability of the best mobile broadband packages make them a big hit with business customers in the east.

"Mobile broadband has been a true success story over the past two to three years, and mobile data and wireless subscriptions will overtake fixed line data subscriptions in both numbers of customers and in revenue. The ever-growing and unmet demand for access coupled with lack of fixed infrastructure investments (improvements) have contributed to this trend and I do not see this changing or reversing. Demand for mobile broadband will exceed that of fixed line services."

The report also suggests that mobile broadband subscriptions will overtake fixed line connections globally by the year 2011. 65% of connections are expected to be mobile by 2013.

Consumers Choose Mobile Broadband Over Holidays and New Clothes.

Ofcom have released the results of their latest survey and once again it shows just how popular broadband had become. The results show that whilst the Recession has affected people's spending habits a broadband connection is still seen as a necessity rather than a luxury. Consumers were asked what they had cut back on in order to save money in these economically tough times and most were unwilling to give up their internet connection entirely.



47% of those who responded to the survey said that the would cut back on going out for dinner and 41% said they would cut back on holidays in order to save. A quarter said that they would spend less on new clothes and 19% planned to spend less on their mobile phone. In contrast only 10% planned to cut back on broadband.

Around 68% of households now have a broadband connection, up 10% from last year. Mobile Broadband is the fastest growing sector with around a quarter of a million new connections this May alone. This means that just over 1 in 10 households now have a mobile broadband contract which is amazing when you consider that the technology is only a few years old.

The perceived lack of money means that consumers are becoming increasingly interested in getting better deals particularly when it comes to long term pay as you go mobile broadband packages. This will no doubt benefit those with the best mobile broadband packages but those who's offers are less competitive stand to lose out.

Can Mobile Broadband Help The Govenment Provide 'Broadband For All'?

The Government has pledged to provide 'broadband for all' by 2012 as part of the Digital Britain project. They believe that broadband is essential for everyone from school children to big business in order to strengthen the economy and reduce poverty. Children from homes without an internet connection tend to get, on average, lower grades. Businesses need fast connections in order to compete with the global market.

At the recent Broadband For All seminar Phil Sheppard, who is the Director of Technical Solutions at Three, said that he believes that Mobile Broadband can be used to get the country connected. He suggested that if Mobile Broadband providers were given access to more of the digital spectrum they would be able to create enough high-speed coverage to help the Government to reach their goal.

“Mobile Broadband tends to be capable and commercially capable of providing the 2Mbps broadband universal service commitment and is an extremely efficient way of doing it. It is very cost effective, it actually doesn’t need government funding, what it needs is access to spectrum, that’s the key”.

The allocation of empty areas of the spectrum (such as that which will be freed up by the switch from analogue television) is causing a lot of debate amongst mobile broadband companies. Hopefully the Government and the Digital Britain Group will take the bait and work with the providers to increase coverage and speed. Those in rural areas could benefit greatly if more of the digital spectrum is given over to Mobile Broadband.

BT Suggests that Mobile Phone Users Should Help to Spread the Cost of the Broadband Tax

In the Digital Britain report published last month Lord Carter who is the Communications Minister proposed a 50p per month tax on all fixed phone lines. The aim of the 'Broadband Tax' is to help cover the costs of providing high-speed broadband to the nations computers.

What is needed in order to improve our broadband infrastructure is nothing short of a complete overhaul. The current copper phone lines were not designed to transport large amounts of data at high speed, they were designed to handle voice calls. The problem is that there is some debate about who should be paying for the new system.



BT has suggested that in order to reduce the tax per customer more people should be taxed. Their solution is to place a tax on mobile phones as well. Some of the £1.5bn which is expected to be raised by the tax may be available to mobile operators as well as fixed line companies as they are both able to join the bidding process for a share of the funds.

BT's director of industry policy and regulation (snappy title!) Emma Gilthorpe has said "the government should consider the opportunity to widen the base for the tax and possibly reduce the amount that each individual household pays". The problem with this theory is that most households own a combination of a fixed line and several mobile phones so in the end the same people may be paying the same amount as they would with the standard fixed line tax.

Those without a fixed phone line, mobile broadband customers for instance, might end up paying towards the improvement of the infrastructure if BT's proposals are considered.

Cheap Offers Increasing Broadband Takeup.

The increase in competition in the Broadband industry is benefiting consumers and increasing the amount of homes going online. Cheaper offers are expected to mean that only one quarter of the population will not have some form of connection by the end of the year. The UK is currently 11th in the world rankings when it comes to Broadband penetration with around 60% of households having an internet connection.

The big Broadband success of the past few years must have been Mobile Broadband. Deals which include a laptop for a monthly fee have been well targeted at those who do not have a fixed phone line as well as those who's only use for a computer would be in order to access the internet. The availability of pay as you go mobile broadband is improving with approximately 99% of the country able to receive data. Fees of around £15-£20 are more palatable to consumers than the idea of buying a laptop outright then paying a monthly fee on top.

Mobile Broadband specialist 3 has unveiled it's latest plan which may be their best mobile broadband offer. Users can get 15gb a month for £15 rising to only £22.50 with a free laptop. With deals like that (and many others for different providers, for instance Vodaphone) there is no longer any excuse not not be connected.