Digital Britain report: The reaction

To view the key findings of the report, click here.

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James Parker, manager of broadband at moneysupermarket.com, said: “The report states that funding for the rollout of the Universal Service Commitment (USC) will come from the surplus funds from the Digital Switchover, however with over 90 per cent of regions still to be switched over, allocating budgets at such an early stage could be a costly error. If Government funding is not fully in place we may see levies on providers who in turn may pass this on to consumers.

“Unfortunately for the 11 per cent currently unable to get 2Mbps the Digital Britain report can only promise that service competition ‘should be’ available across the country. The Government has clearly set out its commitment to the UK’s Digital economy, but now its time for them to commit to the consumer and ensure everyone gets fair access and a fair deal.

“The Digital Britain report has outlined a bandwidth floor of 2Mbps. However, internet users are increasingly accessing bandwidth heavy services like streaming high quality video, and our research shows a significant majority already find 2Mb too slow for many of these services.”

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Michael Naef, founder and CEO at Doodle.com said: “The Digital Britain report is sending a clear signal to the web 2.0 world – if only 2mpbs speeds can be counted on in the UK, websites need to be extremely lean, fast loading and kept very simplistic to ensure universal access. If web 2.0 providers want people located everywhere, including rural areas, to connect to their tools using both computers and mobiles, lean sites are paramount.”

“The tools that the web 2.0 community offer to the general public, usually for free, enable people to get things done more quickly, such as our focus on efficient scheduling of users’ work and home lives. It won’t be until the government backs faster next-generation tools infrastructure that we can start to see further complexities come into web 2.0 tools. Simple is still king -- and this is why the age-old motto ‘keep it simple, stupid’ still works for us at Doodle.com.”

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Patrick Kingsley-Williams, managing director of independent technology solutions specialist, MWL, said: “The ambition to roll out 2mbps broadband speed by 2012 is an incredibly modest ambition, while news of the broadband tax will be seen by both businesses and the public as another stealth tax.

“The Government needs to encourage a lot more competition in terms of broadband provision. In a market dominated by BT, the Government needs to set ISP’s against each other to encourage competition and bring down costs.”

Nicholas Lansman, secretary general at the The Internet Services Providers' Association (ISPA) UK, said: "The Digital Britain Review has played an important role in focussing attention in this area. ISPA welcomes the pragmatic approach to a number of issues taken by Lord Carter and his team and looks forward to working with Government and other stakeholders to carry forward the recommendations."

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Steve Purdham, CEO of we7, said: "The Digital Britain report had the opportunity to set an outstanding aspirational agenda and create a memorable turning point in the UK's digital evolution, but sadly falls short of giving the real focus for significantly enhancing Britain's competitiveness in the future.

“Music and other high value content need two things - A strong deterrent and framework to protect the value and investment from piracy so that we can continue to produce world class music in the future - and secondly high profile education to guide people to legal services. The Digital Britain report missed the opportunity to provide the true pathway to protecting our creative industries from ilicit filesharing. Since music alone currently generates £6 billion per year for the British economy and it is an area in which the UK leads the world, it is clearly an industry worth protecting. A recent survey conducted by independent research company, Opinion Matters revealed that 46% of UK music fans do not understand how to legally consume music but 94% say they would choose a legal music service over an illegal service if it had the same range of music and was easy to use.

With persistence from businesses like we7 and the rest of the music industry piracy can be made redundant with better, safer and economically viable legal services."

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Michael Phillips, product director of BroadbandChoices.co.uk, commented:  “A 2Mb commitment is a pretty underwhelming aspiration given the rest of Europe already experiences over 6Mb as an average.  If this is a headline speed then experience would indicate that many recipients will actually get only a fraction of this, as headline speeds presently fluctuate dependent on levels of usage and how far users are from junction points.”

 “The Government is proposing a carrot of offering indefinite 3G licences to mobile operators in a bid to stimulate investment to patch over rural/outlying not-spots.  The investment from the operators will be significant so the success of this will ultimately hinge on the operators’ ability to recoup outlay in any reasonable timescale given the population density in many of theses areas.  The fall back option is to use satellite infill which could be prohibitively expensive to subsidise on a per household basis.”

“The Government’s target to hit UK-wide 2Mb broadband coverage for all by 2012 is a very tall order.  Updating and implementing the necessary mobile and fixed line infrastructure in 3 years will require a massive coordinated effort and a clearer route to bolstering the £200m from direct public funding to be achievable.” 

Phillips went on to look at the reports recomendation of a 50p per month levy of fixed line phone bills, and the need for further digitalm education.

Next Generation Final Third project:  £6 per annum levy:

“It’s a bold move to tax all cable and copper lines by 50p per month to fund the infrastructure for superfast services to the estimated third of the population that will be left behind by the ISPs.  This could potentially deliver some £175m a year towards the project.  Unsurprisingly, the report has left any timescales for implementation – and the term of the proposed levy – frustratingly vague.”    

Developing the nation’s digital skills: Education:

“Almost half of the 30% of adults that don’t have internet access aren’t interested.  One has to question the value in spending time and resources in ‘educating’ – or converting - those who are simply disinterested in the internet.  Resources might be better spent on ensuring that free public access is more widely available in schools and libraries with educational support systems for those who are interested.  That said, it is encouraging to see that “digital” will be included within the future school curriculum, ensuring that future generations have the skills and knowledge required to make the most of any broadband services.”