…in the UK, provided the regulatory conditions are suitable. Hooking up the other 30 to 35 percent, however, could prove more tricky.
"We asked the question as to whether or not the market will take us beyond 60, 65 percent or whether or not it will only get us there if there is a use of public incentives and I don't think we know the answer to that," Carter said.
However, he added: "The case for the value of next-generation networks is probably clearer now than it's ever been."
Commenting on the report, Ian Fogg, principal analyst at Forrester Research, said that while the commitment to deliver universal service for broadband is "a worthy goal", the report is decidedly lacklustre on the issue of next-generation networks. "I don't think this report has enough in it about making sure that in urban areas we have internationally competitive broadband, fibre-powered broadband," he told silicon.com.
"This report talks about access to [up to] 2Mbps... the vast majority of the country has that available — in excess of 99 percent depending on whose figures you use."
Fogg added: "If the focus is too much on making sure that broadband's widely available, we will have less of a digital divide but we will have achieved that by ending up with a lowest common denominator approach… We need to make sure that both those things — deploying high-speed fibre broadband and making broadband available throughout the country — both those things happen without sacrificing a competitive market."
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There are now more than 30 separate local or community next-generation broadband rollouts planned in Britain and under the plans set out today, the government will help implement a proposal for an umbrella body to be established in order to ensure these next-generation networks are open and interoperable, as well as providing technical and advisory support.
The report also suggests the government is gearing up to tackle online illegal copying, setting out a commitment to legislate to require ISPs to notify copyright infringers their conduct is illegal.
"We also intend to require ISPs to collect anonymised information on serious repeat infringers (derived from their notification activities) to be made available to rights-holders together with personal details on receipt of a court order," Lord Carter's report states.
The full Digital Britain interim report is available online.
Talkback
The Internet is arguably the UK’s most important modern infrastructure. Homes and businesses across the UK rely on their Internet connections everyday, so any measures to bring the technology to as many people as possible is a good thing.
The question remains as to how the UK’s broadband should be delivered; through the existing copper phone network (DSL), fibre optics or wireless? Many argue that fibre is the only solution, resulting in copper being committed to the scrap heap prematurely. But fibre, having been around since the 1970s, is hardly a ‘new’ technology either. If the government wants to commit to broadband in every home, then the phone lines that run into almost every house in the country offer a ready-made solution. Copper based connections can easily exceed the 2Mbps speeds that Lord Carter’s report calls for, and recent innovations have reached speeds of 40Mbps. This is more than enough for most homes and business today.