Carter Defends “Digital Britain” and USO.

Lord Carter has been speaking out in defence of his “Digital Britain” report, and in particular its Broadband USO proposal, in response to the general online and public debate. Speaking at a meeting organised by NESTA he said

“In our judgement two megabits is a base level that means people can access government services and have an acceptable user experience”

The public debate does tend to overlook the fact that a USO would specifically address a small proportion of the population currently unable to access a useful connection speed. It is not in any sense a cap on future ambitions but is simply a “catch up” exercise for those without.

Some small rural villages have had pretty universal 2M service for over 6 years now while at the same time a variety of locations or individual properties, both urban and rural, can’t manage 2M or in some cases can’t manage a broadband connection at all. It is the latter group that the USO seeks to address.

There’s a lot to be worked out on the USO – including aspects like “who pays”, “who delivers” and “how is it delivered” – but we need to embrace the concept of a floor in the market if those unable to access broadband are to be helped.

The Secretariat for the Digital Britain Steering Board have opened a “discussion” site [ here ] and there is also a [ "Write to Reply" ] site which facilitates comment on the Interim Report down to the level of individual paragraphs. The latter is calling for comments to be made by March 12th 2009.

Tags: Carter, Digital Britain, USO