Peer support

From time to time, it’s reassuring to learn that you’re not entirely a voice in the wilderness.  I’m therefore very grateful to Jon Hunt for pointing me towards the recent Nesta report on ‘The case for innovation-led growth’.  The thrust of this document is that the UK’s economic growth depends on our ability to foster innovation.  Fearing that the country is losing ground in this ability, and so losing international competitiveness, the Nesta paper sets out a number of proposals for enhancing the prospects for innovation.  One of these proposals is for significantly increased investment in broadband infrastructure and the policy document speaks a great deal of sense on this score, e.g. 

·        “Broadband, and in particular super-fast broadband …is the twenty-first century equivalent of the motorway system… Public investment in broadband should be seen as strategic investment…

·        We do not fully know what applications superfast broadband will give rise to… but if the history of the last 30 years has taught us anything, it is that people and businesses find ingenious uses for more memory, more processing power and more bandwidth.  It was not so long ago that Bill Gates opined that 640k of memory would suffice for most computer users.  Looking further back, the American Interstate system and the German autobahns were built long before there were enough cars to fill them.  Like these projects, superfast broadband is an investment in the future”. 

The report goes on to recommend that the government funds the construction of a national FTTH network, initially to some limited areas and costing ‘perhaps £5 billion’.  (Access to the national network would then be leased to service providers on a competitive basis).  So, in line with the recent House of Lords recommendation, the aim is for a fully fibre solution with uncertain cost.  And, similarly perhaps, it may not receive serious consideration from a cash-strapped Treasury.  We can only hope, however, that someone in government does at least read Nesta’s excellent report.