Broadband News

The Digital Britain minster's been speaking in Scotland, promising superfast broadband will bring an array of social, economic and health benefits to consumers and businesses across the country. In order to achieve this, Stephen Timms says £200 million's been set aside to supplement market-led growth and spend on "areas that have little or no service."

At a conference called "Bringing Digital Britain to Scotland," Timms has been talking up the Government’s commitment to ensuring towns, cities and remote areas will have access to next generation networks by 2017.  With the help of Government funding, the idea is that high speed broadband will be delivered to areas that wouldn't be reached by private sector investment alone. It's claimed this is "likely to enrich consumers' lives through access to a wide range of video rich and immersive information and entertainment content and communications services."

“Digital Britain’s aim is to make the UK one of the most competitive, highly skilled and technologically advanced economies in the world," says Mr. Timms. “Already the market in Scotland is delivering innovative ways of connecting people to these superfast networks.  The Fibrecity initiative is already delivering 100Mbit/s broadband to residents in Dundee via fibre optic networks beneath the city. It is this kind of market-led investment, supported by Government funding that I want to see rolled out more widely so that all parts of Scotland can enjoy a brighter Digital Future.”

So where's the money going to come from? It's worth noting that £200 million pounds was exactly the amount that was estimated to be surplus to requirements in the figure allocated to the Digital Switchover Help Scheme. However, while it was suggested this money could be spent on achieving the Government's Digital Britain goals, it appears it may still be being held in a BBC bank account. Instead, it looks like Timms and co. are counting the infamous levy on fixed-lines to generate most of the cash for Scottish broadband. As the associated press release is at pains to point out:-

The Government has proposed a 50p levy on telephone bills to help fund roll-out of superfast broadband to over ninety per cent of the UK by 2017.  The ‘Final Third Fund’ will provide £150-£175m per year to support private investment in delivering high speed broadband to communities and businesses in hard-to-reach areas of Scotland and the UK.

But of course, that levy remains just that: "proposed" - and we're now heading towards an inevitable election that could see it scrapped even if the Labour government does enact it. With so much of the publicity around Digital Britain recently concerning dark Lord Mandelson's three-strikes proposals - which haven't exactly proved popular with the electorate - it appears Timms has rode into Scotland with a £200 million measure calculated to win over voters (at the moment it's not clear whether the full sum is exclusively intended for those living north of the border). Could Timms and Mandelson be playing  "good cop" and "bad cop" at the helm of Digital Britain?

After all, “digital exclusion is a major issue in Scotland, particularly for those living in rural and remote areas," according to Trisha McAuley, the Interim Director of Consumer Focus Scotland. “The Digital Britain report makes a positive commitment to universal access to broadband in the UK, although further work is needed. We welcome the Minister’s visit," she adds.

While Peter Mandelson may not be so in demand, Stephen Timms has now also been invited to deliver the keynote speech at the annual meeting of ISPA (the Internet Service Providers' Association). That'll be next month - thought to be after a Digital Economy Bill is unveiled as part of the Queen's speech on November 18th. Let's hope he's still popular by then.