BT says £2 billion needed for Broadband Rollout
The new UK coalition government has promised to make the nation the fastest in broadband in Europe by 2015. Since then, the industry has been abuzz about how much it will cost to deliver such an ambitious goal, which is set to give a minimum broadband speed of 2MB/s to every British home.
Management for BT, the telecoms giant, has revealed that they are already spending £2.5 billion on the expansion, which is set to expand broadband services to about two-thirds of the British homes who currently don’t have access. However, chief executive Steve Robertson says that they will still need another £2 billion in order to meet the 2015 target made by the government.
Robertson has suggested that public funding will be needed to make up the rest. This is because the business case for expanding fibre to the last one-third of homes in the UK doesn’t stack up and would still be challenging with supportive funding, he continued. The £2 billion will help to release further investment from businesses like BT so that the public sector won’t be burdened with all the risk or costs, he added, noting that he isn’t demanding money.
It’s not clear how the government plans to make this deadline happen, as there are little funds available due to the austerity budget announced last month. However, Jeremy Hunt, the minister in charge, says that they should be able to keep their commitment. He suggested that the digital switchover levy put on the BBC license fee may be used for funding the broadband rollout, which will be a short-term fix.