Today the Public Accounts Committee publishes another report on the government’s rural broadband programme.
This latest report from the PAC reinforces previous views it has articulated about the scheme. Namely the lack of competition in supply of services following the procurement process, the need for improvement in cost transparency, processes to ensure value for money and the need for further detail on roll-out plans. (more…)
A new report published today by the Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG) identifies that SMEs are not yet unlocking the commercial potential of online activity and new technologies.
The report entitled Capitalising on Connectivity: Realising the benefits of broadband for UK Small and Medium Sized Enterprises identifies that despite estimates that increasing the digital capabilities of the UK’s SMEs can unlock economic returns of £18.8 billion (ref 1) evidence tells us that SMEs are not capitalising as best they might on this lever for economic growth (ref 2).
This report considers current data on SME engagement with connectivity, policy initiatives to support SME use of broadband and technology, alongside new BSG research.
It makes five recommendations regarding how to better understand SME use of technology and incentivise further take-up and exploitation of connectivity: (more…)
The beginning of February saw the Department of Culture, Media and Sport issue the Terms of Reference of their Digital Communications Infrastructure Strategy, a piece due for full publication by the end of 2014 which will consider what steps need to be taken to ensure that the UK has the right infrastructure in place to meet the needs of users in 2025-30 and ensure that the UK remains a leading digital nation. We are pleased that our 2014 programme of work can play an important role in helping industry and government work together on assessing these longer term needs beyond the current BDUK rollout, so watch this space for further information and inputs on the strategy.
And that wasn’t the only piece of work looking at the longer-term picture in the UK, as the BSG took at trip to Speaker’s House for the launch of a report from the Tinder Foundation and Go ON UK, which costed a digitally included Britain for the first time. A Leading Digital Nation by 2020 estimated that national commitment to ensure basic online skills for everyone by 2020 would cost £875 million – an annual investment of £146 million over a 6-year period. These efforts in costing are to be welcomed as we consider how tackling digital inclusion can drive greater social and economic benefits from broadband-enabled use, an issue the BSG will continue to look at. (more…)
Last week, the Tinder Foundation and Go ON published A Leading Digital Nation by 2020, providing for the first time an estimate for the investment needed to create a 100% digitally skilled nation.
A national commitment to ensure basic online skills for everyone by 2020 would cost some £875 million – an annual investment of £146 million over a 6-year period.
Our CEO Pamela Learmonth was amongst a number of industry experts for the Broadband Genie and PC Advisor Home Broadband Survey 2014.
On Monday, Plusnet, Virgin Media, Sky and Gigaclear were announced as the winners of the 2014 Home Broadband Survey, an examination of the state of UK broadband carried out by comparison site BroadbandGenie.co.uk and technology magazine PCAdvisor.co.uk. (more…)
The BSG is currently recruiting for a new Policy Manager. For full details please see the full advert on the techUK website.
Our current Policy Manager, Charlotte Holloway, will be taking on a newly created role with our partners at techUK as Head of Policy at the beginning of March.
DCMS has today published the Terms of Reference of the Digital Communications Infrastructure Strategy, as was announced in the Connectivity, Content and Consumers policy paper last July. This strategy will play an important role in ensuring that the UK has the right infrastructure in place to meet the needs of users in 2025-30 and ensure that the UK remains a leading digital nation.
The Terms of Reference cite BSG’s work on future domestic bandwidth requirements in the document, and the BSG will continue to work closely with DCMS on this area, as part of our 2014 work programme. DCMS has said it is keen to gather views on future demand for connectivity, the drivers for that demand, how this demand can be met and who needs to do what to ensure our infrastructure is capable of meeting user demand over the next 10-15 years. (more…)
2014 promises much for those in the broadband industry, and it’s all eyes to the policy sphere to help smooth the way for rollout and take-up of connectivity to realise the social and economic gains for the UK.
The first quarter of 2014 alone promises much in the way of further detail on the Government’s Digital Communications Infrastructure Strategy, the £250m BDUK superfast extension programme and the £10m innovation fund. From DCMS, we can also expect the publication of the Spectrum Strategy, and from the GDS team in the Cabinet Office the forthcoming Digital Inclusion Strategy can be expected to have reverberations across government. In UK Parliament, the Consumer Rights Bill has been introduced and the Intellectual Property Bill is progressing, currently at amendments stage. In Europe, all eyes to Commissioner Kroes as the Connected Continent package has a limited amount of time to pass before election season. (more…)
Another new year, another Consumer Electronics Show, where Las Vegas plays host to the latest developments in consumer technology. There’s been plenty of coverage on the weird and the wonderful in the press, but at the BSG we’ve been interested to note a growing conversation about bandwidth needs for the cutting edge products poised to dominate the market.
UHDTV or 4K video streaming has been a notable highlight. Firstly, Google showcased their low-bandwidth 4K YouTube streaming called VP9, and have been working closely with a range of the big electronics firms and device manufacturers on its implementation. Netflix also took to the stage to promote its 4K services, with CEO Reed Hastings stating will require 15Mb/s of bandwidth compressed using HEVC. Interestingly, Broadcom also announced 5G Wi-Fi chips for tripling bandwidth in wireless home networking. (more…)
