The Governments Department for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR) has officially published its long awaited Francesco Caio report (original news) into the investment barriers facing next-generation UK broadband services (NGA's).

Caio initially starts by pointing out that the short term case for a major Government intervention is weak, referencing the UK's good broadband penetration, average headline (advertised) speeds of 5.9Mbps and strong market competition.

He also notes BT's recent £1.5bn commitment to next-gen broadband (news) and Virgin Media's forthcoming 50Mbps product. However he then calls on the government to "act now to support investment" in next-gen broadband services, stopping short of calling for state subsidies:


The report also goes on to make a number of other interesting recommendations, which include helping Ofcom to speed up the release of new broadband wireless spectrum, relaxing regulation and forcing ISPs to be more transparent about their traffic management policies. That last one would be particularly welcome.

There's plenty more detail in the report itself and we'd strongly suggest reading it in full to get the complete picture, which is difficult to simplify into a short news summary. Suffice to say that much of it is to do with designing a good planning, development and monitoring process for NGA's.

The report follows hot on the heels of a similar review by the Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG), which was released earlier in the week (here). It warned that it could cost between £5.1bn and £28.8bn (depending on the technology used) to bring next generation broadband services to the whole country.