Good evening.
It is a great pleasure to be here tonight to hear of so many successful
experiences in using broadband, and to a subject of which I share your
tremendous enthusiasm. We have seen fantastic progress on broadband in
the past year.
The number of new connections a month is now around 150,000. I was
delighted to see BT's announcement this week that its broadband services
have reached exchanges serving 80% of UK homes. There is competition at
the infrastructure level between cable providers and DSL and well over
200 Internet providers with services using BT's wholesale ADSL product.
It's a dynamic and competitive market, exactly as it should be, more
competitive than elsewhere in Europe or US, and broadband users in the
UK are the beneficiaries.
It has been a spectacular turnaround over the past year and a half,
reflecting a lot of credit on a lot of people.
But there is more we need to do. Government is a powerful catalyst in
delivering broadband. We are bringing together the e-Government agenda
with the economic agenda. In November, we will set up nine new Regional
Aggregation Bodies in partnership with the Regional Development
Agencies. In England they will be responsible for joining-up individual
public sector broadband requirements - every school, every GP surgery -
to present them as a bigger package to the market. We're going to spend
£1bn and want to ensure there is a business case for telecommunications
companies to invest in broadband infrastructure and so benefit small
businesses and local communities. In particular, we are convinced that
the commitment of the public sector can transform the business case for
broadband in the rural areas where lack of broadband access is such a
problem today.
There are at present more than 600 local campaigns seeking to
stimulate local demand and either secure upgrade of their local exchange
for DSL, or find other ways of getting broadband to their communities,
for example, through wireless networks. They have made a great
contribution and I applaud the support BT has provided to many.
We also want to help these communities achieve their goal. In May, we
announced a joined-up approach across my Department and Department for
Rural Affairs working with the Regional Development Agencies. The teams
will develop toolkits to help communities and ensure that community
benefits will accrue from the public sector aggregation project.
There are lots of examples of how the broadband market is proving
effective and innovative. Demand registration schemes are a case in
point. Over 900 BT exchanges have hit their trigger point so far, and
over half a million people have registered. The BT registration scheme
was the first of its kind in the world and it's attracted a lot of
interest from overseas telecoms operators who have noted its success.
And the Exchange Activate programme, which is looking to bring
broadband to small exchanges with perhaps only 30 users, could help to
extend broadband yet further. Trials have I know been completed
successfully using a model involving the use of smaller equipment and
funding from a sponsoring body, such as a local authority or Regional
Development Agency.
I warmly applaud BT for supporting the Broadband Britain Challenge,
which has gathered so many success stories from people across all walks
of national life within the seven categories from home users to
businesses. That there were seven hundred and fifty six valid entries is
pretty remarkable and they must have presented the judges with an almost
impossible task. My commendation goes to everyone who has taken part. It
really is vitally important for Britain - for our economy and for our
society - that we make the most of the fantastic opportunity that
broadband offers to us and I warmly welcome the contribution being made
by everyone here.
My congratulations to the winners. Do make sure that others know how
broadband has benefited and inspired you. And every success for the
future.
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