The UK government appears to be seeking the cheapest, as opposed to the best, solution for our country's many broadband access woes. A newly posted official notice has revealed more about its political thinking on the matter, which looks set to favour any option that minimises public sector investment.

Earlier this month the UK Secretary of State for Culture, the Olympics Media and Sport (DCMS), Jeremy Hunt, revealed his preliminary plans to improve UK broadband services (here). This included getting Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), the delivery vehicle for the governments broadband policies, to hold a special industry event on 15th July where it will provide further details, announce several pilot schemes and discuss the best way forward.

As it stands the UK Government has two key broadband objectives. Firstly, that virtually every community in the UK will have access to basic broadband connectivity with a "minimum" access speed of 2Mbps being implemented by 2012 (Universal Service Commitment). Secondly, that it is committed to the roll-out of "superfast" broadband in remote areas of the UK at the same time as more densely populated urban areas, including public money for areas where the private sector cannot afford to go.

The government recently posted an official notice of their forthcoming industry event to the European Union's Journal and invited anybody with an interest and ability to deploy such services to attend. This included a brief mention about how they view the costing angle.


Nobody will be shocked or surprised by a government wanting to minimise use of public sector cash, especially given our current financial problems. However it could be dangerous if this were to result in the cheapest solutions being given favour, much as BP recently found out in the Gulf of Mexico.

Granted broadband won't be causing a colossal oil slick anytime soon but picking the cheapest option often results in short-term solutions that usually require even more significant investment at a later date to fix. Duct tape can hold a lot of things together but we would rather broadband policy wasn't one of them.