Lord Inglewood
Main Page: Lord Inglewood (Non-affiliated - Excepted Hereditary)Broadband: Communications Committee Report
Lord Inglewood Excerpts
Lord Inglewood
That this House takes note of the Report of the Communications Committee on Broadband for all—an alternative vision (1st Report, HL Paper 41)
Lord Inglewood
My Lords, it seems a very happy coincidence that the House will now consider the report of the Communications Committee, Broadband for all—an alternative vision, just after the debate about aspects of Leveson, not least because of the point raised by my noble friend Lady Wheatcroft about the impact of the internet on the provision of news in this country. Of course, it is broadband and the technology on it that are driving forward that particular phenomenon.
There is an old joke about the man, normally in Ireland, who, when asked for directions, replies: “If you want to get there, you don’t want to start from here”. For me at any rate, this became a recurring theme of our inquiry and I hope that my remarks will make clear why.
The first reason is historical. The UK has various legacy communications infrastructures that do not reach some areas, overlap in others, and were built by companies, often for entirely different purposes, in previously unconnected sectors such as telecoms, transport, energy and cable television. There was no overall plan; none of them was conceived and built as part of a general-purpose communications infrastructure. This means that the UK does not start from scratch, as some other countries have been able to. It has had to start from where, ideally, you would not want to begin if you were setting out now to provide the whole country with world-class, state of the art connectivity.
The second reason why the old joke chimed with me, if I might be forgiven for labouring this old favourite, is that the Government’s strategy started from the wrong place. We believe they did not ask the right questions at the outset. This may have been due partly to the context I have just described, and possibly to financial constraint as well, but in our view, the Government’s strategy lacks just that. There has been insufficient proper strategic analysis, which in particular has led to a failure to recognise the real requirements of rural and dispersed communities, which in many ways have most to gain and hence the greatest need—but more of this later.
As your Lordships will know, there is hardly an aspect of our daily lives that is not touched in some way or other by the internet. It is simply extraordinary, indeed almost miraculous, how in really quite a short time the internet has utterly revolutionised “the way we live now”. It has had a transformative effect on commercial and social transactions, creating an information world sans frontières. The possibilities seem limitless: from telemedicine to the so-called internet of things, and everything in between. In fact, I note that just today, speaking at a conference in San Jose, Cisco’s Rob Lloyd, president of sales and development, stated that the company’s predictions indicate that the “Internet of Everything” will create £9.6 trillion of value for companies over the next decade, with the number of connected devices predicted to rise to 50 billion by 2020. In this regard, I welcome the news that the Universities and Science Minister, my honourable friend David Willetts, has recently announced that £6.2 million of government money will be set aside for a competition focused on the “Internet of Things”.
To give credit where credit is due, the Government are to be congratulated on making enhanced broadband provision a public policy priority. Progress is clearly being made. Certainly it was a relief when, shortly before Christmas, the European Commission finally granted state aid clearance for the BDUK scheme. As I say, it is indisputable that, in many respects, we are moving forward and more and more of our citizens are able to access better broadband. However, we found during our inquiry that there is a very real possibility that some people and businesses are being left behind badly and a digital divide will ensue. Inadequate access to the internet and all its benefits is causing great uncertainty, anxiety and frustration that the benefits of the information revolution are not going to be available for all.
We contend that the Government have proceeded with a flawed prospectus and that some of what looks like progress may prove illusory in the longer term. As I have already said, we believe that there has been an insufficient focus on rigorously thinking through questions of first principle, and an absence of an overall vision and understanding of pervasive broadband connectivity and its implications which are an essential component of national infrastructure in the 21st century. Broadband is not an optional extra; it is not a “nice to have” luxury. It is essential and must be thought of in the same way as we think about the road and rail networks as essential components of today’s economy and society.
Government policy appears to have become preoccupied with and derailed by the almost mono-focus on the delivery of speed to consumers. The Government’s specific target is to provide superfast broadband—defined as 24 megabits per second, although that figure has seemed over time to be a bit variable—to at least 90% of premises in this country by 2015, and to provide universal access to standard broadband with a speed of at least 2 megabits per second by 2015.
In our view, this preoccupation has had a detrimental effect on policy-making and the long-term national interest. I can readily understand that committing to the delivery of certain speeds was an attractive way to badge the policy with the public. However, in our view, the delivery of certain speeds should not be the lodestar of policy. What is most important is the long-term assurance that as new internet applications emerge, everyone—and I mean everyone—will be able to benefit, be they inhabitants of inner cities or residents in the remotest areas of the country.
In our report we proposed an alternative vision for UK broadband policy which is not target driven but identifies the establishment of the national broadband network as a national strategic asset which has got to be built in a way so that everyone can connect in different ways according to their own needs and demands. This, we believe, should be the policy’s focus.
In operational terms, we believe that the Government’s strategy has focused on the wrong part of the network—broadly speaking, the outer edge and margins and not the centre. We argued that the Government should be focusing on delivering a high-specification infrastructure which is future proof and built to last. I refer, of course, to fibre-optic cable, the most future-proof technology, which has got to be driven out as close as possible to the eventual user. Once that has been achieved, as well as mandating open access on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms to this optical fibre from the cabinet to the exchange, we need to ensure that there is the same open access to links between the exchanges that feed the cabinets and to the higher level links into national and global networks.
Just as there is national planning for the national, regional and local hubs of our transport network, so there should also be national planning for a communications network of local, regional and national internet exchanges, all linked by ample optical fibre that is open to use by competing providers, on which different operators can site equipment and exchange traffic and develop their own services.
The model that the Government have fixed upon for rolling out broadband has led to BT dominance: it is now effectively the only show in town. This lack of competition is a concern because competition is a driver of value for money, innovation, excellence, and consumer services. Indeed it surprised us that a partly Conservative Government have designed a scheme which has led to so little competition. In saying this I hasten to point out that I am not in any way chastising BT, which is a very effective, sophisticated, world-class business which is behaving exactly as you would expect such a business to behave. Indeed, it must be commended for the investment it is making.
Certainly it has been a bit unfortunate that our report has been seen by some as an attack on BT. This suggests that they may not have fully understood what we were saying. No, our criticism lies with the Government’s strategy and the way in which they have set up a framework insufficiently open and available for competition of all kinds and have paid insufficient attention to bridging the digital divide that is opening up.
Our report has argued that broadband policy should have three key elements. First, it should be driven, above all, by the need to arrest and ultimately eliminate the digital divide. Secondly, it should also be driven by an avowedly long-term, but also flexible view of the infrastructure’s future. Thirdly, it should also strive to reinforce the robustness and resilience of the network as a whole. The spectre of a widening digital divide is a profound source of concern. We believe that that obliges the Government to address their cause with greater commitment and vigour than we believe is currently the case.
As I have already pointed out, our alternative vision is simple. It is of a robust and resilient national network linked primarily by optical connectivity, which in turn brings open-access fibre-optic hubs into or within reach of every community. This would enable diverse providers, both large and small, to contribute to the reach and resilience of our national connectivity and allow each and every individual to benefit from services, both private and public of whatever kind, which will run over it in time to come.
In addition, in order to realise this vision, it is our view that the country’s future broadband infrastructure should deliver the following. First, every community should be within reach of an open-access fibre-optic hub. Secondly, every such hub should be fed by ample fibre-optic cable, providing open access to optical links back to the exchange, and from it back to the public internet. This, of course, will not be free, but it will be made available to all on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms, allowing anyone to build their own local access networks out from the hub as long as they meet appropriate technical standards, using whichever technologies they choose. Thirdly, at the very least, we expect a hub to be able to provide backhaul for a wireless network where there is demand. In this way all premises would be able to gain access to a wireless internet service from at least one of these hubs, assuming that they can afford to do so.
The Government set their course long ago but I hope that our model will inform their plans for the future. The Government’s response to our report was a disappointment; it did not, it seemed to us, engage substantively with our arguments. I hope that my noble friend the Minister can say something more today.
A crucial point is why there seems to be more focus in government policy on so-called superconnected cities at the expense of improving broadband in rural communities. Let me make it absolutely clear: I am not claiming that the superconnected cities programme is without merit; and it is very important to recognise that there is some very poor provision in some built-up areas, just as there is in rural areas. It is, however, mystifying to us that superconnected cities appear to have trumped improving provision in our remotest communities. Let us be clear, businesses in rural communities could and would tap the enormous opportunities presented by the internet and instant worldwide communications. For many it would be a real game changer. This would in turn contribute to economic growth generally, and more particularly to the diversification and strengthening of the rural economy, which seems to many to be being marginalised.
I read with interest the recent Institute of Directors’ survey of its members about broadband, which makes for worrying reading. It found a wide and real divide between rural and urban internet services, with satisfaction rates significantly lower for IoD members in rural areas. Only 34% of members in rural areas are satisfied with the speed of their fixed-line downloads while 45% are dissatisfied; a mere 13% of rural business leaders are satisfied with mobile download speeds while 60% are dissatisfied; and 21% of IoD members in rural areas are satisfied with the reliability of their mobile internet service compared to 46% who are dissatisfied.
In a similar vein, I note that Digital Business First, a campaign group made up of businesses from Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, recently released a report in which it calls for,
“better broadband and mobile infrastructure”.
It states that,
“the Government’s present course is paved with good intentions, but failing too many communities”.
It argues that a 10% increase in broadband reach could generate a 1% increase in GDP per capita—a significantly better rate of return than other infrastructure projects.
As I have already said, fast, reliable internet connections are vital these days for businesses, but clearly the existing infrastructure is falling short. Of course I appreciate that there are difficulties in reaching remote areas, that everything cannot be done at once, and that the availability of public money is especially limited at the present time. Nevertheless, public spending is a question of priority and I hope that more attention can be paid to those parts of the country that are missing out. In this regard, I am particularly interested to hear the Minister’s view on the important role of fixed wireless in areas where it is very difficult to get fibre-optic cable close to people. In those circumstances, fixed wireless offers real opportunities.
As I mentioned, the Government’s specific target is to provide universal access to standard broadband with a speed of at least two megabits by 2015. To explain what that means, two megabits per second is the speed required to watch the BBC iPlayer. There is some way to go to achieve that. I urge the Government to go further as they ponder the next phase of their strategy. They must ensure that nowhere in this country becomes a broadband ghetto. The real risk is greatest to those parts that are most marginalised now in the availability of public services, and hence most vulnerable to further marginalisation. This includes making rural Britain a priority. As a final thought, I wonder about the emphasis placed on grand projects such as the HS2 high-speed rail scheme, which involves multibillion pounds of public expenditure. That might have been better spent on broadband provision. I will just leave that there for now.
Finally, I thank our specialist adviser, Professor Michael Fourman, for the expertise and enthusiasm that he transmitted to all of us, both members and clerks. The jargon used in this field is endless and utterly bewildering at times. For some of us at least, the technology is not far behind it and Michael was adept at guiding us through the jungle. I look forward to the debate and the Minister’s response. I beg to move.
Lord Inglewood
My Lords, I am grateful to all the speakers in this debate who, without exception, have supported the thrust of our report and its recognition of the social and commercial significance of broadband for this country. They were not applying the same arguments; that in its own way is equally significant, because we do not advocate any single solution to the problems of the last 10%. It is horses for courses, and there are different arguments for different aspects to the general approach we are advocating. I was interested that the Minister criticised the report for advocating a single technology. I do not think that is quite fair: we are advocating a single outcome from the application of whatever technology may be the most appropriate to bring it about.
We have been talking about something that is important and revolutionary. That is why I was very pleased that a number of speakers referred to both the historical and the global contexts of what we are discussing this evening. I was particularly impressed by the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, talking about Marie Antoinette and what she might have said in France. Then she moved on to talk about the Chinese emperor. I am sure it was an oversight that she did not tell us what he would have said in his own language.
The Government are doing things, and that is good. I congratulated them on this in my opening remarks, but we must ensure that what is being done is progress and that we are not seduced or misled by averages disguising areas of deprivation in a much more satisfactory landscape. We have had a good debate this evening; I have no doubt that this subject will, in the years to come, be debated again—and so it should be. I beg to move.