UK Telecoms urged to invest in faster networks

TELECOMS URGED TO INVEST IN FASTER NETWORKS
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Maija Palmer]
The British government will on Monday put renewed pressure on telecoms companies to invest in ultra-fast broadband networks, warning that the UK economy could suffer if they do not. Stephen Timms, the competitiveness minister, has called companies including BT, Virgin Media, BSkyB, Vodafone and Carphone Warehouse to a summit meeting on Monday to discuss building a network that would allow consumers to download music, films and other material over the Internet at much higher speeds than today. Virgin Media, the cable operator, is expected to add to the pressure on other telecoms companies ­ particularly BT ­ by announcing plans to roll out broadband access at 50 megabits per second starting next year. This is more than twice the current top speed of 20 megabits per second available on its network. Virgin says it plans to make the high-speed service available to 70 per cent of its customers by the end of 2008. However, Virgin Media only covers about 50 per cent of the UK population, and the government is also keen to see BT, whose network reaches almost all the population, build a higher-speed network.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/8f441d56-9bad-11dc-8aad-0000779fd2ac.html
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