Faster broadband access part of talks by Peter Mandelson
The leaders of the top five mobile phone networks in the country have been called up for a meeting by Lord Mandelson as part of ambitions by the government to enable access to fast broadband internet access in the country by 2012.
The meeting, held on Tuesday, is the second such meeting in 2 weeks that the business secretary has personally intervened in this horse – trading before creating a digital economy bill during the autumn. This legislation is set to implement some of the recommendations of June’s Digital Britain report, but some of the proposals have fallen foul of the realpolitik of Westminister.
One of the main recommendations of the report, which was a 6 pound annual levy on phone lines to finance the next – gen super – fast fibre optic broadband cables, has already fallen over as it won’t get approval from the Conservatives.
Universal broadband access, according to the report, could be possible only if there was a more wide use of mobile broadband as well as increased coverage in remote parts of UK.
However, the access to universal broadband largely depends on the 5 networks reaching a deal on the usage of the 900MHz wireless spectrum that was given to Vodafone and O2 when they had started operations during the 80s. this spectrum would be great for rural broadband due to its capability to carry signals over a long distance. The other networks don’t have it.
A deal to re-apportioning the 900MHz airwaves should be arrived at before the government tries to sell the 800MHZ spectrum which will be returned to it when analogue TV signals are discarded in 2012, which is also great for mobile coverage in rural areas.
The meeting with the chief executives will aim at ‘banging some heads together’, according to some insider information.
In return for this, mobile phone companies will have their 3G licenses extended into the indefinite future, thereby saving them a large amount of money, which fixed – line operators say could be used to finance next – gen broadband networks.
Source - guardian.co.uk
