With the Internet and broadband become an ever increasing part of our business and personal lives, the BSG believes that next generation networks are essential to enable the UK to cope with increasing broadband speeds that will be available in the UK and other developed countries. The group states that it is now essential that telecom companies start thinking to the future with regards to their network speeds, so that very high speed broadband can be handled by the networks in the future.
The chairman of the group, Kip Meek, stated: "Broadband matters. There's plenty of evidence that broadband itself has had a very beneficial impact on economic performance. The move from narrowband to broadband has been very important and our hunch is that the move from low-speed broadband will be just as important."
He also added that it was unlikely that the current telecom infrastructure in the UK would be able to handle very high speed broadband and enable consumers to benefit from these high speeds. He said, however, that there was little encouragement for providers to improve the network speeds, adding: "The point we have come to, whatever technology is adopted be it fibre, wireless or whatever, is that there will be a hefty bill. We have to create the circumstances in the UK where someone is prepared to write out the cheques to do that." His views were echoed by Yvan Bamping of broadband comparison site http://www.broadband-
