VIDEO Ex-BT CTO Blasts UK for Rural Broadband Failings on BBC Newsnight

BT’s former Chief Technology Officer and a man whom has since become an outspoken critique of the operator, Dr Peter Cochrane, recently had another bash after he appeared on a special episode of the BBC’s Newsnight TV show to help examine the problematic issue of rural broadband coverage.

The Newsnight episode outlined the confused and somewhat delayed state of the United Kingdom’s efforts to rollout superfast broadband (25-30Mbps+) to 95% of the country by 2017. If you haven’t seen it already then it makes for a good, albeit somewhat over-simplified, viewing that unfortunately skirts over a few of the key issues (Ofcom’s regulation, the fibre tax etc.). But a nice episode none the less.

Meanwhile Cochrane attempts to make his usual point, which is that the country should ideally be trying to roll-out a truly ultrafast Gigabit fibre optic (FTTH/P) network to every home instead of relying on hybrid-fibre (FTTC/N) solutions and existing / slower copper lines. Sadly Newsnight somewhat skims over the issue of where you’d get the extra £15bn or so needed to do this, especially when the country’s national debt has risen to around 90% of our annual GDP. Anyway if you didn’t catch it last week..