Convergence Conversation

BDUK Industry Day – First Thoughts

Thursday 15th July 2010 saw the BDUK Industry Day take place in London with invited members of the telecommunications industry, government and others.

The overall sense of the day was of bold aspirations and genuine determination on the part of ministers, Martha Lane-Fox and the new BDUK team to start delivering positive outcomes to enable the UK to compete globally with a 4th Utility infrastructure fit for 21st Century purposes.

It is to be hoped that the BDUK team is able to show some further stretch of ambition to extend the proposed three “market-testing” NGA pilots to provide many more localised real-life demonstrations of what NGA can do, ideally at least one location per each county, so that everyone in the Final Third has somewhere local to visit and see and experience the services they can look forward to.

Unfortunately many others were not invited to attend and in some cases, inexplicably uninvited at the door – still overall the day was worthwhile and reinforces the message that the time for debate is over and the time for action is now.

There has been disappointment expressed at the set back from 2012 to 2015 for a 100% Universal Service Commitment of 2Mbps – this is understandable both from a rural community/business point of view and also from the perspective of the severe constraints imposed on Government expenditure.

The way forward for Final Third, mainly rural, communities is clear enough – it is time for each local community to step up and work together with partners in the industry – the UK’s Final Third First FttH Village provides a benchmark for what can be achieved without a penny of Taxpayers Money.

A particularly helpful comment from Jeremy Hunt was that Fiscal circumstances mean that any change must be revenue neutral. There must be a level playing field for all, and that the rating system must not inhibit the roll-out of superfast networks.

More to follow.

Also posted on www.fibrestream.co.uk