BSG and Value Partners publish new white paper on broadband infrastructure

Today the BSG has published a new White Paper with Value Partners, Broadband Infrastructure: The Service and Application Providers’ View.

Looking at the views of the broadband infrastructure from those who provide services over the internet today, the report find 3 main conclusions:

– Few respondents considered current broadband as a significant barrier to innovation today. Instead they suggested that it was just one of a series of end to end issues that needed to be considered when thinking about how to improve services for consumers. Few believed that simply addressing the bandwidth issue alone would be enough to deliver the quality of service that consumers are increasingly expected to demand.

– Consumer expectations of quality are increasing as ever-richer data services, such as internet TV and cloud based applications continue to be brought to market. As a result service and application providers are starting to think about how they can manage end-to-end quality of service in the medium term (18-24 months). This raises issues surrounding net neutrality and suggests this debate now needs to be tackled in the UK.

– The major players believe that next generation broadband will spur innovation and growth in new services and applications. However an upgrade in bandwidth alone will not cancel out the need to manage the multiple pinch points across the network, to guarantee good quality-assured end to end delivery.

The BSG is hosting a launch event tonight to debate the report with stakeholders.

Broadband Infrastructure: The Service and Application Providers’ View