UK lacking in IT infrastructure warns former head of BT Research
1 min read
While the government, and the three leaders of their political parties, have been crowing about the UK's technology leadership, in the run-up to next month's election, Professor Peter Cochrane says that Britain lies somewhere between 20th and 30th place in terms of broadband.
Cochrane, who founded Cochrane Associates, having been head of BT Research in the 1990s and retaining his position as acclaimed futurologist, reckons it will cost £500 billion to bring the UK's infrastructure up to standard.
But, he adds, it will cost a fraction of this sum – somewhere between £5 and £15 billion – to get every home and office in the UK hooked up to optical fibre and the ultra-fast broadband speeds that technology creates.
"On a national scale, this is truly an insignificant amount of money, yet the potential for economic rejuvenation is, I believe, far greater than for any other sector or investment," says Cochrane.
He also suggest that leading economies ascribe more than 2% GDP growth to broadband expansion, with the broadband crown currently being worn by Korea and Japan.
"Simply put, the industry followed the bandwidth, and people in South East Asia now access games and facilities unavailable to the rest of the world," he says. "In the mind of government, the UK is at the forefront of the broadband revolution. Unfortunately, we are not even in the top 10."
