TELEWEST ACTION GROUP

Review of the Year: Broadband Britain
By Ian Lynch [31-12-2002]
Innovation walked hand in hand with frustration as 2002 began to see Broadband Britain become more than just a nifty phrase


A year that started with BT scrapping plans for SDSL broadband eased quickly into the era of DIY ADSL connections. At least, assuming that you had access to broadband infrastructure. A fifth of British businesses moaned that they did not.
With the government keeping its purse strings tight for now, new BT boss Ben Verwaayen decided to place broadband at the heart of the telco's strategy and cut the wholesale cost by £10. Finally, ADSL could compete with cable broadband at around £25 per month.

But many businesses still couldn't get either. Public sector organisations such as the NHS also wanted it badly to improve services.

As spring kicked in, BT Retail decided to muscle in through its no frills offering, prompting other ISPs to cry foul and threaten to call in regulator Oftel, although little was done.

While BT's price cuts stimulated demand, the UK still ranked only 12th of the (then) 15 European Union countries in an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) study.

In the summer, a government IT minister was appointed who actually had an IT background, promising to put broadband at the top of his agenda, which was soon revealed.

He would be helped by the ideas of vnunet.com's sister title Computing's new broadband committee, bringing together the brightest and the best.

Meanwhile, cable firm Telewest's 1MB broadband offering for £35 per month would later prove a winner at Computing's awards night and help the cable firm overtake BT in the race for broadband subscribers by August.

BT, on the other hand, had decided not to ADSL-enable any more rural exchanges unless pre-defined targets were hit, leaving users frustrated.

By the autumn, BT was promising to look again at SDSL in 2003, at least in London. Although the country as a whole was looking fragmented. BT then launched a £10m advertising campaign to whet the appetite for high-speed internet connectivity.

The country gained its millionth broadband subscriber. But plenty of people were still left without the option of either ADSL or cable if they wanted to turbo charge their web connection.

With connections up 12.4 per cent on the year, Prime Minister Tony Blair decided to clamber onto the broadband bandwagon.

Of course, once aboard he wanted to take over the reins, promising that the public sector would drive forward Broadband Britain in 2003.

Computing's broadband committee, meanwhile, had worked out the remaining issues to be resolved next year.

Into December, and while schools in Sunderland landed a deal for broadband connectivity, OECD figures showed that Broadband Britain is still very much a work in progress.