New BT Openreach Boss Says Superfast Broadband Target Can Be Met
BT Openreach’s new chief executive, Olivia Garfield, says that the target of ensuring 90% of the UK population has access to superfast broadband can be achieved.
The main job of the new BT Openreach CEO will be to ensure that superfast broadband is rolled out across the country, covering as much of the U.K as possible.
Openreach was founded in 2005 and has been run by Steve Robertson until Ms Garfield took over from him.
She said that BT Openreach would be able to introduce superfast broadband to the majority of the UK by working closely with the Government. She said BT Openreach would be able to achieve the Government’s target of “the best broadband network in Europe by 2015”. However, even if BT achieves this target it may be that the aim of having the best broadband in Europe is still not met.
Ms Garfield added “We’ve rolled out a fibre network at twice the pace of anywhere else in the world”, adding “Everything we do is at scale”.
She said that if BT matched the funding provided by the Government then they would be able to reach 90% of the country by 2015. However, she said that it was not commercially viable for BT to install superfast broadband to more than two-thirds of the country.
However, one of the Government’s top priorities is to bring superfast broadband to millions of rural homes and businesses in rural Britain. The Government is providing £830 million for broadband – a figure which BT is matching – but there are concerns that BT is not in a position to achieve its targets.
Aides to the Environment Secretary, Caroline Spelman, said she is keen for more to be done to get superfast broadband into rural areas saying “The existing BT infrastructure can be better utilised for rural broadband growth”.
The MP for Penrith and The Border, one of the country’s most rural constituencies, hopes that Ms Garfield will bring a fresh attitude to BT. Rory Stewart said “I hope that she’ll help the company to become more flexible in the way that it works with the kinds of projects we’re pioneering in Cumbria like self-build and community owned networks”.
If no case for rural broadband can be made then communities will have to persuade the Government that state help is needed especially if it’s clear that the private sector will not provide the services needed.
It’s not just local people who are desperate for rural broadband but there are thousands of businesses, both large and small, based in rural communities which are becoming increasingly reliant on the internet for their business.
Ms Garfield suggests that broadband will be eventually seen as a human right as healthcare and even education services increasingly make use of the internet to provide services. If that is the case then rural communities will increasingly turn to the Government to provide these services which the private sector says are too costly to provide.