Broadband News

All three main parties have failed to gain the approval of broadband campaigners who insist the politicians ‘have mistaken headlines for policy’.

Lobbyists at the Final Third First believe the manifestos of the three main parties will do nothing to ensure that those with no or poor broadband service get an acceptable connection by 2012.

The campaign has been set up by several organisations, including the Country Land and Business Association (CLA). Together they argue the proposed roll out of fibre in city areas is good news but should not be undertaken before all have a good basic 2Mb broadband service.

None of the above

Having read the manifestos and studied each party’s proposals, a spokesperson for the group of campaigners believes none represents its desire to see broadband for all before super fast speeds are rolled out to the few.

“Unfortunately, the Labour Party originally mentioned megabytes and not megabits in its manifesto,” they said.

The Conservatives, while supporting the needs of music industry by supporting the Digital Economy Bill, refused to support a budget provision to assist connectivity in rural areas, and believe that only the market can deliver in rural areas where existing market policies have failed. The Lib Dems have yet to come up with a definitive policy.”

Funding and mobile mismatch

The spokesperson furthered the attack on the main three parties by suggesting all have got it wrong over what to do with spectrum released by the switch from analogue to digital television and are not putting the policies in place to ensure Britons in rural areas are offered an acceptable broadband connection. In fact, to the contrary, the removal of the proposed 50p tax on phone lines to fund ‘final third’ connectivity projects leaves a gaping hole in funding rural broadband.

“All wish to auction the 'Digital Dividend' radio spectrum to the highest bidder at the expense of coverage and quality targets for this critical resource in the belief that no one will notice, whilst taking no action to allow fixed and mobile connectivity resources to converge,” the spokesperson continued.

“Disappointingly, the parties’ priorities were to force through a very poorly considered and poorly debated Digital Economy Bill written around the needs of the music industry,  while taking away the financial support needed to fix the nation’s rural connectivity.

 “This lack of a definitive consistent action plan is simply unacceptable. We are expected to believe that delivering 'superband' to most of the country will translate into upgrades in rural areas.  So far, we have seen nothing of the sort.”

The Final Third First campaigners are urging the electorate to question parliamentary candidates over broadband as well as councillors at every level of local government.