By: MarkJ - 24 August, 2010 (7:55 AM) - Score: 4693 - Fixed Line Broadband

The boss (Guy Jarvis) of a community network specialist for Next Generation Access (NGA) services, Fibrestream UK (NextGenUs), has warned that confusion over how "super-fast" NGA broadband services are defined has reached ridiculous levels after Devon County Council decided to define "NGA compliant" as just 5Mbps (Megabits per second)! That's actually slower than Ofcom's recently reported existing national average of 5.2Mbps (here).

Sadly defining next generation broadband can be fraught with difficulty. The previous Labour government effectively tried to define it, through their Digital Economy Bill/Act 2010 (DEA), as being any "super-fast" service offering speeds of 50Mbps. Most recently the tax setting Valuation Office Agency (VOA) figured they would have a bash too and decided upon 20Mbps.

To date the closest thing we have to a real and official definition came from Ofcom in March 2010, when the regulator released its summary of consultations on the wholesale local access and wholesale broadband markets. Like it or not, Ofcom are best placed the solve this dilemma but their current definition is somewhat weak.


However the latest attempt to mislead and confuse the public only surfaced after ISP South West Internet (SWI), a Community Interest Company (CIC) that has been established to provide broadband infrastructure to homes and businesses in the South West region (Dorset, Somerset and Devon), tried and failed to bid for local authority money.

SWI's current service coverage extends from Bournemouth in Dorset, to Barnstaple in North Devon. However the group had plans to take advantage of WiMAX and 802.11n Wi-Fi wireless broadband technology to deliver both faster speeds and a greater range of services over wider coverage.

Sadly SWI soon discovered that all the funding had been won via bids submitted by Devon & Somerset County Council & The Forest of Deane District Council. The process was competitive, with the Council's own bids being submitted in secret. Thankfully Devon County Council did invite SWI to a Broadband Industry day meeting on the 18th August, where they learned this.


Setting aside the hugely controversial way in which those related local councils appear to be abusing the process, 5Mbps is surely absurd for a supposedly "NGA compliant" service. This clearly highlights why we need a clearer and centralised definition that everybody can adopt.

In the meantime SWI, which calls the whole process "a sham", has submitted a formal complaint to the Chief Executive of Devon County Council over the potentially illegal way in which its process has been handled, which could be abusing state aid rules (more on that here).