This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/19/the-guardian-view-on-broadband-britain-take-internet-infrastructure-away-from-bt

The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
The Guardian view on broadband Britain: take internet infrastructure away from BT The Guardian view on broadband Britain: take internet infrastructure away from BT
(about 3 hours later)
“Access to the internet shouldn’t be a luxury; it should be a right – absolutely fundamental to life in 21st-century Britain,” said David Cameron last November. He went on: “Just as our forebears effectively brought gas, electricity and water to all, we’re going to bring fast broadband to every home and business that wants it.” Quite right, too.In the 21st century, not to have a speedy internet connection is to be cut adrift from the mainstream. Going without it is the kiss of death for a business, a handicap for any student and a penalty for any family. Fast internet allows Britons to access public services, to find information quickly, to hear from foreign countries and loved ones. “Access to the internet shouldn’t be a luxury; it should be a right – absolutely fundamental to life in 21st-century Britain,” said David Cameron last November. He went on: “Just as our forebears effectively brought gas, electricity and water to all, we’re going to bring fast broadband to every home and business that wants it.” Quite right, too. In the 21st century, not to have a speedy internet connection is to be cut adrift from the mainstream. Going without it is the kiss of death for a business, a handicap for any student and a penalty for any family. Fast internet allows Britons to access public services, to find information quickly, to hear from foreign countries and loved ones.
So how well wired is Britain? The good news: it’s either the best or among the best in the European Union for standard, superfast and mobile broadband coverage. The market offers plenty of choice and in certain blessed regions the connections can be very speedy indeed. Now the bad news: it all depends on where you are. Draw a map of broadband Britain and you see patches of superfast availability around London and its immediate hinterland, Manchester and other major cities. Then there’s the rest. Superfast Cardiff gives way very quickly to superslow valleys. There are villages in West Yorkshire where half have superfast broadband – and their neighbours do not. Given the opportunities that superfast broadband opens up, this is a sharp and brutal form of inequality. Instead of spreading prosperity more evenly around the country, our broadband system concentrates it in the same old hotspots. That this should be the case despite the £1.7bn of taxpayer money invested in evening up access speaks of a major failure not in resources but in policy. Tuesday’s report from MPs on the culture and media select committee is precise in its targeting of the main body responsible. It is of course BT, which takes the lion’s share of that public money to provide rural Britain with decent broadband. Not content with taking well over £1bn from the taxpayer, BT offers lamentable service. It bars local authorities from disclosing information on speeds and coverage, so that homes are told they are receiving a fast service even when they’re struggling to watch a bit of YouTube. It has cherrypicked the easiest areas to wire up. The MPs describe as “clearly unacceptable” how BT “have been allowed to get away with using such commercial secrecy” – which is unfair both to users and BT’s rivals. So how well wired is Britain? The good news: it’s either the best or among the best in the European Union for standard, superfast and mobile broadband coverage. The market offers plenty of choice and in certain blessed regions the connections can be very speedy indeed. Now the bad news: it all depends on where you are. Draw a map of broadband Britain and you see patches of superfast availability around London and its immediate hinterland, Manchester and other major cities. Then there’s the rest. Superfast Cardiff gives way very quickly to superslow valleys. There are villages in West Yorkshire where half have superfast broadband – and their neighbours do not. Given the opportunities that superfast broadband opens up, this is a sharp and brutal form of inequality. Instead of spreading prosperity more evenly around the country, our broadband system concentrates it in the same old hotspots. That this should be the case despite the £1.7bn of taxpayer money invested in evening up access speaks of a major failure not in resources but in policy. Tuesday’s report from MPs on the culture and media select committee is precise in its targeting of the main body responsible. It is of course BT, which takes the lion’s share of that public money to provide rural Britain with decent broadband. Not content with taking well over £1bn from the taxpayer, BT offers lamentable service. It bars local authorities from disclosing information on speeds and coverage, so that homes are told they are receiving a fast service even when they’re struggling to watch a bit of YouTube. It has cherrypicked the easiest areas to wire up. The MPs describe as “clearly unacceptable” how BT “have been allowed to get away with using such commercial secrecy” – which is unfair both to users and BT’s rivals.
Perhaps the most damning charge is that BT is systematically underinvesting in Openreach, its unit to roll out broadband – by “potentially hundreds of millions of pounds a year”. That money is instead being spent on things like broadcasting football matches on BT Sport. It is using the public utility of Openreach “to cross-subsidise riskier activities elsewhere in the Group, while significantly under-investing in the access infrastructure and services on which a large part of the public rely”. It is short-changing the public in order to throw money at shareholders and executives.Perhaps the most damning charge is that BT is systematically underinvesting in Openreach, its unit to roll out broadband – by “potentially hundreds of millions of pounds a year”. That money is instead being spent on things like broadcasting football matches on BT Sport. It is using the public utility of Openreach “to cross-subsidise riskier activities elsewhere in the Group, while significantly under-investing in the access infrastructure and services on which a large part of the public rely”. It is short-changing the public in order to throw money at shareholders and executives.
The fault partly lies with the regulator, Ofcom. Mainly it rests with the government for pretending that a natural monopoly like internet infrastructure can be run as a competitive, commercial enterprise (see also: railways). Let’s drop the pretence, take Openreach away from BT and make it a public service. Let’s end broadband apartheid.The fault partly lies with the regulator, Ofcom. Mainly it rests with the government for pretending that a natural monopoly like internet infrastructure can be run as a competitive, commercial enterprise (see also: railways). Let’s drop the pretence, take Openreach away from BT and make it a public service. Let’s end broadband apartheid.