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Local South West England Council Defines NGA UK Broadband as 5Mbps

Posted: 24th Aug, 2010 By: MarkJ
fibre optic nga uk broadband cableThe 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.

Ofcom March 2010 Statement

"Super-fast broadband (i.e. broadband with speeds greater than 24Mbps) will provide consumers and businesses with higher speed and more capable services, which are likely to enable the use of a wide range of new and innovative applications. These could, for example, include super high definition and 3D video services, more effective teleworking and telemedicine."

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.

South West Internet commented:

"The bid was about delivering a number of NGA pilots - which simply put, means you have to deliver broadband speeds of 20Mbps into a number of areas. The Council officers explained, their NGA pilots would be to supply an NGA compliant 5 Mbps. Again the County bid has failed to meet the requirements of the bid, but this time they had changed the requirements to map onto - what appears to be a specific vendors solution. The only vendor we are aware of, that fits this, is BT."

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).
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