ITS Technology Talks Fair Fibre Optic Marketing and Broadband Rollouts

The Chief Executive Officer of IT services provider and fibre optic builder ITS Technology, Roy Shelton (MBA), has told ISPreview.co.uk as part our exclusive interview that broadband development in the United Kingdom “cannot only rely on the public sector for investment” and more must be done to foster the smaller and more agile operators.

It’s fair to say that the ITS Technology Group, between becoming the majority shareholder in Manchester focused wireless broadband provider CityServe, teaming up with the Fibre Garden project in rural Cumbria (England) to help deliver a 100Mbps service into Garsdale and Dentdale, deploying new broadband infrastructure out to various businesses and reporting major annual growth, has had a fairly busy year.

Naturally ISPreview.co.uk wanted to learn more about the company’s views on the Government’s broadband roll-out, the need for improvements to the business connection voucher scheme (helps SMEs to get superfast broadband installed), fibre optic technology / marketing and whether or not it they think the current market could potentially be improved. Thankfully the founder of the ITS Technology Group, Roy Shelton, was willing to oblige.

The Interview

1. The Government’s Broadband Delivery UK programme currently aims to make fixed line superfast broadband speeds (24Mbps+) available to 95% of the population by 2017 and 99% via mobile and wireless by 2018 (as well as 100% being given access to speeds of at least 2Mbps).

But many have criticised this scheme for failing to set the performance (speed) bar higher, handing most of the contracts to one bidder (BT) and not building out a true fibre optic network (FTTH/P/B). What are your thoughts on this programme and how could it be improved, if at all?

ANSWER:

Generally I feel the scheme is a great idea and the economic benefit will be felt for generations; however, I do feel the UK market will still be left lagging behind other developed countries.

For instance, the European Commission recognised that on the whole, the EU was lagging behind BRIC nations in the drive to establish infrastructure to enable it to compete in the 21st digital global economy. The Commission’s response was the Digital Agenda for Europe 2020 (DAE) which states a minimum target of 100Mbps broadband for 100% of all EU citizens by 2020. Many EU countries have stepped up to the challenge, but the UK isn’t going to if it sticks to the current plan.

Having one main supplier cannot be good for choice or value for money. There have been many well documented cases of BT overcharging and under delivering on this project already. I would have liked to see a more regional, or even local, approach, with smaller and more innovative, agile and creative companies being appointed to deliver in these designated areas. I feel the project would have created more local jobs, increased local GDP, and also generated better value for money.

ISPreview Editors Note: Just a small correction to Roy’s remark. The EU Digital Agenda’s 4th pillar calls for “download rates of 30Mbps for all of its citizens and at least 50% of European households subscribing to internet connections above 100Mbps by 2020“.