How is Britain going to get the next-generation broadband network it desperately needs to compete in the modern world? That was the question posed to a panel of more than a dozen industry leaders and experts at the latest Westminster eForum, but convincing answers were desperately thin on the ground.

Instead of courage, creativity and innovation, the mood coming from Britain’s broadband leaders was complacency, resignation and a weary confession that we’re “still going round the same issues time and time again”.

The half of the country that’s connected to fibre provided by Virgin Media, BT or any number of local projects can almost certainly look forward to download speeds of 40Mbits/sec plus in the next few years. But what about the other half – the half living outside of the big cities that are already struggling on sub-standard connections?

Perhaps impetus for a nationwide next-gen network would be greater if the industry was willing to admit that our current infrastructure just isn’t good enough. But the complacency of BT’s director of public affairs, Tim O’Sullivan, was staggering to behold. Confronted with statistics that show Britain’s current position in the international broadband league is “more Championship than Premiership”, and a second report from Cisco that claims Britain’s crumbling broadband network could threaten our future competitiveness, O’Sullivan responded with platitudes bordering on arrogance. More than 99% of the country already has access to broadband, he retorted, 40% of which have access to “up to” 20Mbits/sec connections on BT’s network. “People should take stock and have a dose of reality in these debates,” he snapped.

If he wants a dose of reality he should talk to the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) and its tens of thousands of members who can’t get a broadband connection worthy of the name. He should talk to the small business owners who are forced to relocate because they can’t get a stable ADSL connection. He should talk to the people who are seriously considering moving to mobile broadband – and its average connection speed of 0.87Mbits/sec – because it’s still faster than their landline.

Ofcom’s lapdogs

Yet is it any surprise that BT rests on its laurels, when even our supposed consumer champions are so desperately meek? “2Mbits/sec is good enough for today, but it’s absolutely not enough for tomorrow,” Anna Bradley, chair of the Ofcom-sponsored Communications Consumer Panel told the audience. Sorry Anna, but 2Mbits/sec isn’t good enough. It isn’t good enough to watch the HD streams from BBC iPlayer – a service the vast majority are already paying for through the licence fee. It isn’t good enough for many people to work from home, because of the deplorable upload speeds. It isn’t good enough in modern multi-PC households, with two, three or more devices trying to connect to the internet simultaneously.  No wonder that a spokesman for Lord Corbett referred to the Communications Consumer Panel as the “Industry Backside Protection Unit”.

Hope for the future?

So what hope is there for nationwide superfast broadband? BT says there’s no business case to lay fibre in any more than 40% of the country; some others estimate that 60% may get fibre by market forces alone. But even the most optimistic predictions don’t go above that figure.

Mobile won’t step into the breach. “There isn’t spare capacity in mobile networks to augment fixed-line networks,” said Forrester analyst Ian Fogg. “Mobile next-generation access is about the twenty-four seven lifestyle – it won’t be an alternative to fibre or Virgin Media’s network.”

Which leaves half the country pinning its hopes on Government intervention – although few think Lord Carter’s broadband tax will raise anywhere near enough to fibre the nation, and the Tories have pledged to scrap it if they get into power next year anyway.

In fact, the best hope of widespread fibre might come from innovative start-up projects, such as Fibrecity’s cost-cutting solution of running fibre though the sewer network. The company’s Adrian Cook said Fibrecity would shortly announce another ten cities that would benefit from the technology, and laughed off suggestions that fibre deployment need cost anything close to the figures suggested by the likes of BT and the BSG. “[We can install fibre for] significantly less than £400 per home,” he said. “If I were anywhere near that, my chief financial officer would have something to say about it.”

Perhaps someone can put a word in, and get this man a job at BT.