Deregulated fibre and local action key to Conservatives’ vision for Digital Britain

A future Conservative government would build Digital Britain with an injection of more common sense and new powers at local government level as well as encouraging community groups to petition local authorities for fibre. Far more controversially, though, Ed Vaizey, Shadow Minister for the Creative Industries, reveals the Conservatives would give private investors access to BT’s fibre network and, if fibre is not available, they would be allowed to use the underground ducts to build their own local fibre loops.

Ed Vaizey, Shadow Minister for the Creative Industries, is outlining today, at a Community Broadband Network (CBN) event, how a Britain led by David Cameron would rely on local communities, local government and private investors to come together to provide fibre links to the 25% to 30% of the country the Government admits is not “economically compelling” enough for commercial operators, namely BT and Virgin Media.

He believes the current Government is relying far too heavily on mobile broadband and claims any computer users who have “wrestled with a dongle” will agree that it is rare to get a constant, good connection that provides 2Mb. Hence, a Tory government would not expect mobile broadband to nearly always prove the key in connecting so-called ‘not-spots’, as Lord Carter has outlined in his interim Digital Britain report (the final report is expected in the middle of June). Such plans, he believes, could prove divisive.

“The danger of this approach is that it will only serve to widen the gap with between the rural slow lane and the urban areas with choice and bandwidth,” Vaizey announced today.

“Surely the promise of the internet was to transcend this split and make is possible to build an online business from anywhere.”

This he argues is ironic given that if we were moving to this system of fibre and mobile to provide a 2Mb connection by 2012, South Korea is expecting to make its minimum speed 1,000Mb.

Instead a Conservative government would boost fibre’s roll out by empowering local community groups to petition their local government bodies to do more to boost broadband speeds, namely ensuring fibre is considered when roads are dug up for repair by other utilities and that telegraph poles are used to provide the backbone of fibre networks.

Perhaps most controversially, Vaizey is also outlining that a conservative government would rely on private investment rather than a massive ‘Asian-style’ public programme. This means that to make the market attractive to private investors he is predicting Cameron would force the deregulation of the fibre market so ‘dark’ fibre networks could be accessed by third parties to provide their own fibre service and, more controversially, install their own fibre local loops.

“Above all though the key issue is to create a framework which allows private sector investors to get the returns necessary to make the huge investment required,” he outlined this morning.

“To do this we should oversee wholesale deregulation of the current broadband infrastructure. Dark fibre, Openreach’s ducts and the sub-local loop should be opened up and other operators allowed to access them. We should not rely solely on BT to build this new network. If they are not willing to lay fibre in their ducts, other operators should be allowed the opportunity to do so.”

Vaizey also made a series of pledges on how local government would be reshaped and given new powers so it could take a greater lead role in fibre provision. The proposals include:

 ·         Giving local authorities the right to retain the financial benefits arising from new business activities in their areas.

·         Enlarge the freedom of local councils to act in the best interests of residence, by giving them a ‘general power of competence’

·         Giving people the power to instigate referendums on local issues

·         Phase our ring fencing, so that decisions about how councils spend their budgets are taken by councils and their citizens alone; and

·         Make it easier for local government to raise money for local projects on the bond market

·         Stripping the Regional Development Agencies of their powers over planning, and give local governments the power to establish their own local enterprise partnerships to take over development functions from RDAs

·         Replace the Infrastructure Planning Commission with speeded up public enquiries for infrastructure development or private/hybrid legislation for major projects.

 Interestingly, Vaizey also raised the potential for a Conservative government to draw up new-build housing regulations that would require new houses, and the wider estates they are build on, to be equipped to receive fast broadband connections.

Tags: Add new tag, Broadband Fibre, BT, CBN, Community Broadband Network, Conservatives, Conversative Party, dark fibre, David Cameron, Digital Britain, Ed Vaizey, local government, Lord Carter, RDA, Virgin Media