In order to become a leading broadband nation, the UK will need to invest somewhere in the region of £5 billion to £15 billion in the latest technologies, an expert has claimed.

Peter Cochrane, who was head of BT Research in the 1990s, believes that kind of investment could enable every home and business to gain access to super-fast broadband.

"On a national scale this is truly an insignificant amount of money. Yet the potential for economic rejuvenation is I believe far greater than for any other sector or investment," he stated in a blog post for 360itevent.com.

Mr Cochrane also warned that the UK's international position for broadband provision at present is nowhere near as favourable as the leading politicians are suggesting, with Japan and Korea currently leading the way.

Earlier this week, a report from the Telecommunications and Internet Federation suggested that creating a world class telecoms and broadband network in Ireland will cost around €2.5 billion (£2.2 billion).

It suggested mobile broadband should play a significant part in any new set-up, given the difficulties to be faced in rolling out a fixed-line network to rural areas of the country.

Add a comment

Comment

Your name

Your e-mail address

Comments (0)