In an earlier piece, I described how responsibillity for UK broadband policy has bounced between government departments in the 18 months since Digital Britain was published. Throughout this period, the industry regulator has remained essentially silent on the Report’s proposals – even the idea of using public funds to promote broadband deployment. As Peter Phillips of Ofcom said at the time: ‘Spending public money to build out the broadband network is primarily a question for Government rather than regulators’.
OK, but it’s that word ‘primarily’ that matters here. While Ofcom might go on pretending that issues such as defining or developing a universal broadband commitment were outside its brief, it was only a matter of time before the hoopla emanating from DCMS and BIS was going to rub up against the core policies of even the most myopic communications regulator – not least Jeremy Hunt’s £830 million strategy to secure ‘Britain’s Superfast Broadband future’.
And so it came to pass that Ed Richards spake at the closing session of the Oxford Media Convention. And he did issue dire warnings against the creations of government, speaking thus:
“…we must also not forget the Government’s £830 million investment, through the licence fee, where we will be keeping a very close eye to ensure that proposals emanating from that expenditure and the procurement associated with it do not distort competition and do not inadvertently create islands of monopoly, offering short term benefits but with long term costs”.
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