The BBC should pay to help bring fibre optic, ultra-fast broadband to the whole of the country, according to a government peer. Looks like iPlayer could be coming at a price – read on for all the details.
The BBC should contribute to help bring fibre optic broadband to areas of the country not covered by either BT or Virgin‘s plans, the former head of Ofcom told Parliament’s business committee today.
Questioned on his recent Digital Britain report, Lord Carter said, “More and more people get their media from the internet and that usage is doubling every two years. Would the nation’s state-funded content provider [BBC] have a role in this? It would seem to me it would.”
Currently, only half of the UK population lives in areas where BT and Virgin plan to roll out ultra-fast fibre optic broadband, but to ask a content provider – even a state funded one like the BBC – to pay for a new distribution network could provoke uproar, and not just from the BBC.
So, a new broadband business model, or fibre optic folly? We doubt the BBC will be happy, so we’ll be following this one every step of the way.
