Britain’s broadband is lagging behind its European counterparts.

Leading telecoms executives have been summoned to a meeting today with the government and regulator Ofcom, to find ways to prevent Britain falling behind in the world broadband league.

The summit, organised by Stephen Timms, the Minister of State for Competitiveness and former e-commerce minister, will tackle how to increase internet access speeds, paving the way for services such as high-definition internet TV, and who will pay the £7 billion or so for the infrastructure.

As well as BT’s Chief Executive, Ben Verwaayen, and the firm’s retail and Openreach network divisions, Virgin Media, Cable & Wireless, Sky and Carphone Warehouse are expected to be represented.

Ofcom is currently leading a consultation on next-generation networks; however, in the consultation paper, the regulator stated that the UK’s average broadband speed was 4.6Mb/sec – an average figure of the theoretical maximum speeds, and not the real average of connection speeds, which surveys repeatedly show is between 2-3Mb/sec.

The government is concerned that British industry could suffer if broadband speeds don’t improve in line with the rest of the world. “We need to be discussing how we can put this new network into place, because delay could be a barrier to the future success of our economy,” Timms told the BBC.

The creation of a next-generation access network could mean Britain dumping the traditional copper phone lines in favour of fibre-optic cabling.

The meeting also comes as new research shows that consumers are increasingly using their broadband connections to stream or download TV programmes and movies.

According to the latest annual Olswang Convergence Consumer Survey, compiled by YouGov, 63% of internet users view user-generated video clips, such as those posted on YouTube, at least once a month. A third stream or download TV programmes or movies every month.
For more information, visit: www.ofcom.org.uk