The postponement of most of the £5 billion rural broadband programme because currently dominant
suppliers say they cannot deliver is therefore a bizarre capitulation to vested interests.
It had long been obvious that it was not in the commercial interests of BT to divert resources into
rural broadband unless paid for by the public sector. The pressure to upgrade its core network to
handle growing competition to provide the fast, reliable, resilient and converged services now
demanded by business and consumers (from BT Retail, Wholesale and EE), is now such that it cannot
afford to do so, even if heavily subsidised.
Allowing others to do so, using different technologies or business models, supported by some of
£billions available from private sector fund managers or from customers (were they able to pay up
front for 3 – 5 year contracts) was, and is, equally not in BT’s interest.
Nor is it in the interest of those (like Virgin or City Fibre) who want potentially scarce resources
to be concentrated on enabling them to compete with BT and/or to fibre up would-be smart cities.
The choices have, course, been complicated by the decision to exclude Huawei from the critical
national infrastructure on grounds of “security” (alias economic and/or cyber warfare) and the
Brexit negotiations on state aid.
Given that low cost, mass produced Huawei equipment designed for robust operation under extreme
conditions across rural China has come to dominate markets across most of the Southern Hemisphere,
it might be ideal for rural Britain, without jeopardising national security. Given that the Huawei
products lines are designed to international standards using Western IPR such procurements need not
lead to any longer term technology lock-ins.
[I learned my “trade” with STC Microwave and Line. STL Harlow was later at the heart of Nortel’s
R&D. I have conflicted views on this subject.]
Instead we need action to collate demand and rapidly expand the supply of digital infrastructure
construction skills – e.g. hands-on, short course, modules, delivered via commercial
training/assessment providers and technical/agricultural colleges with access to simulation
equipment and/or brown field and green field practice sites.