Broadband
This policy area is now the responsibility of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). This page and all related content will be migrated to the
DCMS website
shortly, when details are finalised and announced to Parliament.
Government / Business Roundtable - 11 January 2011
On Thursday 2 December 2010 at the BIS Conference Centre a round table meeting was held to discuss how business rates are applied to fibre optic networks.
Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture, Communications and the Creative Industries, welcomed the attendees from industry and government and introduced the subject.
Experts from the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) explained their latest guidance notes and delegates discussed the issues that this raised. A presentation from Geo Networks gave an industry point of view.
Papers from the meeting are: a list of organisations represented (PDF, 38 Kb) ; a note of the meeting (PDF, 59 Kb) ; the VOA speaking notes (PDF, 33 Kb) ; and the Geo presentation (PPT, 1.2 Mb) .
Launch of Government’s Broadband Strategy
Secretary of State for Culture Media & Sport, Jeremy Hunt announced the publication of the Coalition Government’s broadband strategy. Titled Britain’s superfast broadband future (PDF, 3.7 Mb) , it aims to bring together all the areas that the government and industry is working on in bringing superfast broadband to all parts of the UK.
Alongside this, BIS has published the summary of responses to the 15 July discussion paper (PDF, 49 Kb) on sharing other utilities' infrastructure for broadband deployment. BIS and the British Standards Institution have also published a document titled Publicly Available Specification (PAS 2016) (PDF, 3.7 Mb) , which aims to inform housebuilders, builders and developers about the need to install digital infrastructure into all new build domestic dwellings. The document complements the ducting guidelines published by the Department for Communities and Local Government. It provides new best practice guidance to achieve the new build installations.
Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) has also published the conclusions and lessons learned from the (BDUK) Theoretical Exercises (PDF, 182 Kb) , which was launched at the industry day in July. The responses to this informed BDUK’s approach to delivery of both the universal service and superfast broadband objectives.
Broadband
Broadband is a technology that enables both businesses and the public to access a wide variety of new Information Communication Technology (ICT) services. This suite of technologies offers the potential to transform the development and use of ICT applications and services.
Businesses in the UK are deploying ICT more pervasively and innovatively than ever before. We now see employees on the move quite at ease accessing their company network through remote connections, and more broadly, businesses are ever more integrated in their exchange of product, schedule and financial information.
Raising productivity is seen as one of the foremost challenges to improving the UK’s economic performance. The Government recognises the potential for digital technologies to transform the way we live and work and also their potential for disrupting adopted behaviours. We must respond to these challenges of increasing global competition by transforming our own services and raising our skill levels. That is why the Government has set out long term service transformation plans and is investing in technology to transform learning, to bring opportunity and experience of ICT to all school pupils and their families. These programmes and other complementary initiatives provide the backbone for the Government's digital strategy.
See Harnessing Technology: Transforming Learning and Children's Service (external link) for more information.
Public Broadband Schemes - A Best Practice Guide: February 2007
This guidance from DTI (BIS) and Ofcom is complementary to the USC and NGA (Next Generation Access) programmes. Designed to help those responsible for making decisions about public investment in broadband schemes, it sets out the factors that are to be considered before determining whether to use public monies to intervene in the broadband market.
Public Broadband Schemes - A Best Practice Guide: February 200 (PDF, 53KB)
Broadband reports
Ofcom Communications Market Broadband Digital Progress Report
