The joys of summer

As widely tipped, the inexorable 2-year Communications Review by DCMS has not produced a White Paper, as originally intended.  Instead, the Department squeezed out a so-called Strategy Paper today, only just in time for the summer recess.  The overwhelming feeling of anticlimax was heightened by the way DCMS trumpeted the publication:

“Putting consumers at the heart of communications policy: Maria Miller announces new strategy, including a nuisance calls crackdown, ending ‘bill shock’ and protecting children online”.

Two years of widespread consultation and a series of silly seminars for that…??!

Happily, there’s actually quite a lot more to the Strategy Paper than those headlines suggest.  In particular, the government finally appears to have taken on board that a broadband objective of ‘the best superfast network in Europe by 2015’ is seriously misjudged, not least because of its narrow focus and its shortsightedness.  At last, there is some prospect of the government aiming to develop the ’all-encompassing vision of pervasive broadband connectivity’ that the House of Lords said was missing from current policy:

“We need to plan long-term now if we are to have the digital infrastructure to support the technological advances that will be the platform for growth and opportunity in the UK… We will work in partnership with industry experts to develop a UK strategy for our digital communications infrastructure from 2015 to 2025... It will be underpinned by a technology-neutral approach, since fixed, fixed-wireless, mobile and satellite communications networks all have a part to play in achieving world-class connectivity”.

Heaven be praised!