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Broadband availability still hitting UK Plc
Despite progress made by BT Openreach, says CMA survey

By Tony Hallett

Published: Wednesday 07 February 2007

Competition in the UK telecoms sector is more intense than it was a year ago but there are still problems for organisations that want broadband at all their sites or symmetrical speeds.

The 14th Communications Management Association (CMA) annual survey, which polled 354 senior communications and network professionals in the UK at larger companies, found the creation of BT Openreach is thought to have "stimulated competition".

However, 54 per cent of respondents also said they cannot get broadband everywhere they need it. Some 73 per cent said they want SDSL - where connections are of roughly equal speed upstream as well as downstream - but cannot get it.

Addressing the CMA conference in London today, CMA chairman Carolyn Kimber said: "All sorts of people who should know better say they don't know why we'd need such high capacity."

The CMA is pushing for a move beyond USO - BT and the Post Office's old universal service obligation - to what they call 'universal access'. And the push isn't about just flavours of DSL but also pressing for fibre connections.

Other CMA Survey findings

♦ Best performer in fixed communications for overall quality: NTL:Telewest

♦ Best performing mobile network operator: Vodafone

♦ Best fixed-line performer for overall value for money: Verizon Business

♦ Best performing mobile network operator for overall value for money: T-Mobile

♦ Most 'innovative and exciting': Intel

♦ Most 'ethical and socially aware': BT

♦ 'Cool company': Nokia (again)

Kimber added: "By the time we wake up to fibre to the home, it will take five to 10 years to develop it." She said by then the UK could be 15 years behind competing economies.

Convergence - an umbrella term covering technologies such as IP (everywhere), SIP and IMS - quickly emerged as a theme this year.

Meanwhile the biggest cheer of the conference's first morning was reserved for Kimber's plea regarding international roaming charges, claiming business people only travel when they have to and that when they do they should not face high charges.

EC commissioner Vivianne Reding has been leading a push to regulate the roaming charges that mobile operators charge.