On 27th January 2004
THE FUTURE OF BROADBAND IN BRITAIN
At a major keynote speech given this afternoon (Tuesday 27th January 2004)
at the Access to Broadband Campaign Conference hosted by Cisco Systems near
Heathrow Airport, Michael Fabricant (Shadow Minister for Economic Affairs)
highlighted a number of major issues:-
whole – UK plc – and instead has concentrated on vested interests at the
expense of rural areas.
Government has a clear duty to ensure that our fibre optic infrastructure is
utilised so that high-speed broadband becomes common and cheap in the UK as
it is elsewhere.
results in customer dissatisfaction and discourages others from logging on.
Speeds under 512 Kbits/second should not be designated ‘broadband’ and we
should encourage high speeds over 2 Mbits/second to enable television over
the internet. Michael Fabricant has coined the phrase ‘wide-band’.
controlled infrastructure (electricity and gas supplies as well as defence
and national broadcast systems and others) by ‘cyber-terrorists’. The
United States has begun to put protective measures in place. Our defences
remain limited.
broadband. Britain has fallen behind in the numbers of individuals and
firms who actually use broadband services. Of com should be an enabler,
more than a regulator.
restrict Spam emails. Thanks to a major loophole in the law, Britain has
now over-taken India and is now in the top 10 countries in the world
originating Spam emails.
support and encouragement is given, it needs to be sustained.