Raymond O'Hare hits out at 'unambitious' broadband target

Published on Saturday 15 May 2010 14:03

A NEW Digital Britain report has been criticised for failing to set high enough targets on broadband capacity that would allow Scotland to be competitive.

Raymond O'Hare, chairman of the Institute of Scotland and the former Scottish chief of Microsoft who now runs his own business strategy company, attended a private meeting in St Andrews House last week to discuss the report.

Afterwards, speaking at TechCrunch Europe, staged by Edinburgh University's informatics Ventures, he described the British digital initiative as "an outdated business model".

O'Hare added: "The report is also totally unambitious and 'yesterday's news', when it comes to equipping a country like Scotland with the best technology around."

Digital Britain is a government-led initiative covering everything from telecoms, radio, television and broadband capabilities.

O'Hare said: "It refers to a universal service target of equipping around 90 per cent of the UK population with at least two megabits per second (2 Mbps] broadband download speeds by 2012.

"How can we possibly compete when there are countries like Finland whose aim is to have speeds of up to 100 megabits for all by 2015."

Corporations and other big organisations are currently searching the world for the most technologically-advanced countries to locate a business hub.

O'Hare warned: "They will favour a country that has sophisticated digital networks, together with a population that is comfortable when it comes to using such new technologies."

Last week BT announced a further 1 billion broadband investment, bringing the total value of its programme to 2.5bn, to expand its fibre-optic network to cover about two-thirds of the UK population by 2015.

The telecoms firm had already announced plans to upgrade another 32 Scottish telephone exchanges for "next generation" broadband services benefiting more than 260,000 local businesses and consumers.

BT's Scottish director, Brendan Dick, claimed the company was "the only player in town" when it comes to consistently investing in faster broadband technologies.

O'Hare said BT should not be expected to do everything on the broadband front. "As a commercial organisation BT had to justify its actions at all times," he said.

"Instead, the Scottish Government should provide the lead in a combined public/private sector initiative to better equip Scotland with the best technological infrastructure available.

"Only then will Scotland attract new and highly lucrative business to its shores. The bottom line is that we must not be constrained by the unambitious targets set out in the latest Digital Britain report."

Informatics Ventures project leader Andrew Mitchell said Scotland owed it to itself to make the most of the best possible technological advances available.

Mitchell claimed that only then would it build on its undoubted worldwide reputation for ingenuity, and finally produce its first home-grown global software company of scale and renown.