Share

Scottish Chambers of Commerce Call for Real Digital Competivity

Scottish Chambers of Commerce today called for the raising of the bar in terms of UK ambitions to raise our level of broadband provision. Chief Executive Liz Cameron expressed concern over the paucity of our ambitions for 'superfast' broadband.

Ms Cameron said:

"We are swithering around whether we can actually guarantee to deliver 2mb Broadband throughout the UK in the near future. As all broadband users will by now be aware, paying for 2Mb capacity doesn't mean your system actually operates at that speed. Many people on 8Mb get less than 50% of design capacity as variables such as cabling, distance from exchange, and number of competing users all affect actual delivery times.

"As more and more services move to online provision and we see our industry tackling global markets to achieve economic growth it is vitally important that we have tools enabling us to match our competitors. Market demands mean broadband speed improvements are centred on our conurbations. That's about ROI on concentrations of bulk users. Actually the businesses which most need online connectivity are those in our remoter areas, and many parts of Scotland are amongst the most remote in the European Union.

"Therefore let's look at examples like Sweden where the communications Minister has just announced their plan to have 90% of the country on 100Mb broadband by 2020.

See: http://ow.ly/zdBC

"When IT improvements have been responsible for over 40% of Europe's business growth in recent times we will remain behind the starting post in the next generation of broadband applications if we don't find the means to catch up. Preferring a model of light regulation, this is one clear area where government can give a boot-up to infrastructure improvement. Previous concerns about the legality of government intervention are nullified since Sweden is itself an EU regulated economy.

"Whilst no-one welcomes additional taxation, the proposal for a 50p per month broadband tax, hypothecated to broadband improvements, makes sense if it enables us to accelerate the programme for improvements in the UK. We call on all stakeholders to get serious about co-operating to make faster improvements possible now."