The recent Broadband Stakeholders Group (BSG) report, which cited the importance of building a better broadband network, caused a lot of discussion. Typically much of this has been positive, but not everybody agrees with the BSG conclusions.

Dan Cole, head of product management at THUS (Demon Internet), feels that the BSG is overlooking key elements within our market:


The remarks from THUS appear to focus primarily upon business access and in that respect it succeeds in making some very valid points.

Meanwhile moneysupermarket.com's head of broadband, Jason Lloyd, focuses a bit more on the residential side. He points to Virgin Media's existing cable network and BT's forthcoming 21CN, suggesting that no further investment is needed. There’s also the potential threat to smaller ISP’s, which may find it difficult to keep up:


Many smaller providers hit troubled times last year while adapting to BT’s up to 8Mbps “MAX” technology (see some of our recent ISP Interviews) and ADSL2+ is expected to cause similar problems. Related ISP’s may again run into difficulties while attempting to find the needed investment for a new network.

Lloyd goes on to suggest that BT could be placed back into public hands and its networked turned neutral, although we can't see that happening. Likewise we can’t see Virgin Media extending its cable coverage beyond that 50% mark and BT’s existing network, even after 21CN, won’t be powerful enough by itself.

Speaking as a consumer focused website, ISPreview wants to see ordinary people having access to faster broadband services that actually run at the speed advertised – for EVERYBODY. However the reality is that taking such a step will take time and money, lots of it. We may just have to live with ADSL2+ for awhile, much like dialup before it.