British Telecom has today confirmed that the initial £1.5 billion put aside for investment into the superfast broadband network has been increased to £2.5 billion. The company is also looking to ensure that 66% of the UK population will receive superfast broadband by 2015 against an earlier indication of 40% by 2012. This is a major improvement in targets and has been well received by broadband users and broadband companies across the UK.
It will be interesting to see how the coalition government reacts to the increased investment by British Telecom as the Conservative party was looking to raise funds from the BBC licence payers fee while the Liberal Democrat party was looking to introduce a Labour style broadband tax. There is no doubt that the UK government will at some stage need to inject capital into the UK broadband network as British Telecom is currently taking on all investment risk.
Many believe that the UK broadband industry is entering a new era when TV on the Internet will become more popular and other services which require lightning fast broadband speeds will also be introduced. However, we are likely to see an increase in broadband charges although many consumers are happy to take on board additional charges for significant improvements in speed.