UK Government releases Digital Britain report

Posted on 16 Jun 2009 at 18:02

The UK Government today published the long-awaited Digital Britain report, which outlines the Government's plans for the UK's future digital infrastructure.

Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw outlined the main points in the report in parliament, which include:

Universal access to today's broadband services by 2012
Next Generation fund for investment in tomorrow's broadband services
Upgraded mobile networks and liberalisation of 3G spectrum
A three-year National Plan to boost Digital Participation
Robust legal and regulatory framework to combat Digital Piracy
Support for public service content partnerships and revised digital remit for Channel 4
Funding options for national, regional and local news
Programme of Digital Switchover in Public Services, including upgrading all Radio stations to digital by 2015

Perhaps the most controversial announcement was that the Government plans a £6 per-year supplement on all fixed-line connections in the UK as part of a national fund for future broadband infrastructure upgrades.

This, claims Bradshaw, is required to ensure all of the UK receives next-generation broadband by 2017. "Left to market, true super-fast broadband will only reach two thirds of homes and businesses in the next decade," he said.

The Government will also introduce new laws to curb illegal file sharing, stating that it would work to encourage and raise awareness of legal alternatives to file sharing that are "inexpensive, convenient and easily accessible for consumers".

Telecoms regulator Ofcom will also be given new powers and will be tasked with delivering a "significant reduction in unlawful file sharing" through two obligations. These include informing detected illegal file sharers of unlawful activity and taking persistent offenders to a civil court for prosecution.

There will also be modifications made to copyright law in order to encourage new inexpensive digital content distribution services, but stopped short of actually detailing any changes. Instead, the Government said that some changes are required at a national level, while others can only be updated by the EU.

In addition, the report confirmed the Government's commitment to universal 2Mbps broadband by 2012, which will be met via several elements, including "simple and complex in-house wiring solutions, deploying fibre to the street for a selected number of cabinets and a wireless solution using either mobile or satellite".

The report does state that resolving in-house wiring issues is likely to be a cost the consumer has to swallow, while the industry is expected to foot the bill for deployment of wired or wireless networks that meet the Government-imposed 2Mbps threshold. What isn't clear though is how the costs will be shared. Instead, the report states: "It is not possible to include quantitative information on the expected costs and benefits of these proposals as they may influence the outcome of the subsequent competitive tendering process. These will be published in a final impact assessment which will be produced once this has taken place."

Author: Tim Smalley

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