Lower cost of deployment – Government
4.3 Benchmarking progress towards NGA deployment
The initiatives listed in the previous section should create better conditions for an effective, pragmatic deployment of NGA. But their implementation is demanding and requires leadership and joint working with Ofcom and other partners.
In order to support their implementation and assess if the market is delivering against its plans for NGA, the Government should use this review as the starting point for a structured process to monitor progress of NGA in the UK and benchmark it against evolution in other countries. The following paragraphs outline some elements of a possible way forward.
AppoInt A SEnIor fIGurE for broAdbAnd
The Government should consider naming a designated senior figure for Broadband, who would have overall responsibility for delivery of the strategy. This would send a strong signal of commitment and provide a focal point for coordination of various activities.
Stakeholders should not need to know the internal workings of government to raise issues or point to barriers to investment. They should, though, have confidence that delivery of NGA is given appropriate priority in policy-making.
Part 4: Recommendations
The government should instigate a process by which barriers can be identified and solutions are quickly considered.
EStAblISh A StructurEd procESS to monItor proGrESS
The process ought to review two main areas: progress against plans in the UK and international developments in NGA.
Progress against plan in the UK
The process ought to provide an assessment of how activity is developing on three main fronts:
regulatory/legislation – ●
● to keep track of how the legal and regulatory
framework is evolving; how the initiatives that the Government will decide to pursue among the ones recommended by this review are being implemented; whether main uncertainties and blockages are being removed; whether further initiatives are needed to support development.
Evolution of supply – ●
● to have a regular update of how key industry players
(and main projects) are progressing in the implementation of their plans and how their offer is evolving. These should include fixed operators such as BT and Virgin Media; main local projects; and mobile networks.
Evolution of demand – ●
● to understand consumer demand in terms of
broadband usage profiles, customer satisfaction with quality of service, evolution and take-up of devices (e.g. IP-enabled TV sets), and the take-up rate of information and entertainment applications.
International benchmarking
The second area to monitor should be the evolution of NGA in other markets. As we have seen in Part 2, no single metric will give the Government a definitive answer of whether the UK is decisively falling behind in deployment of NGA. It will therefore be necessary to consider a range of deployment metrics, and derive a qualitative overall assessment of what the results are telling us.
AttrIbutE rolES to ofcom And bSG
The government should involve both Ofcom and the BSG in this progress. This report has already mentioned the need for joint working with Ofcom.
The BSG has played a vital role in bringing together industry voices, undertaking research and analysis, and advising government. The BSG’s ability to move the debate on and attract attention to the issues should be fully utilised.
Each of these could play a part in a structured benchmarking and tracking process. The exact details of this would need to be subject of further discussion between the main players, but some preliminary ideas for this process might be:
Ofcom to undertake international benchmarking according to criteria
● ●
agreed with government (Annex E outlines some possible categories for benchmarking);
BSG to publish annual stakeholder report on progress; and
● ●
the Government to register public policy issues, identify options for solutions
● ●
and drive forward action to address them.
InStItutE An AnnuAl EVEnt to dIScuSS proGrESS wIth thE full rAnGE of StAkEholdErS And updAtE prIorItIES
Over the last few months the review team has observed a keen interest from all stakeholders involved in the review to access key facts and information about the development of NGA in the UK and abroad.
This was demonstrated, among other things, by the large attendance to industry events such as the recent BSG conference on NGA and the Converge meetings at BERR.
In this context, it might be helpful to consider the introduction of an annual event hosted by the Government, whose main objective would be to share and discuss the outcome of the monitoring and benchmarking process sketched out above. This might help: (a) sustain momentum in the industry; (b) reinforce commitment to broadband NGA by Government and all involved stakeholders; and (c) define a notional annual deadline to review progress and confirm priorities.
Part 4: Recommendations
Box 5 A possible agenda for an NGA conference to be held in the first half of 2009
regulatory:
Definition of wholesale products Resolution of IP interconnect regime Copper switch-over plan
In-building wiring public policy: Overhead deployment Streetworks Business rates Supply:
Progress of Virgin Media upgrade Extent of BT roll-out
Development of wireless broadband offer Survey of actual bandwidth delivered Evolution of ISP marketing policies Progress of local NGA initiatives
demand:
Take-up rate of broadband by speed Evolution of customer satisfaction Feedback on local initiatives