Ed Richards, Ofcom CEO, on FTTx and regulation

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"Super-fast broadband is crucial to the UK’s future. These next generation networks form part of the critical infrastructure of the country’s economy and will be central to the way we live our lives in the future.
Super-fast next generation broadband will come to change our perception of communications radically. Alongside mobile broadband, it will, in time, have a similar impact on our society and economy as first generation of broadband.
Not just in information and entertainment, but in how businesses and consumers organise themselves and interact and, increasingly, in aspects of our lifestyles such as healthcare."

Which is nice.

He went on to talk about providing a comfort zone for investors in FTTx to ensure that they could make a fair return. While those comments seemed pretty clearly pitched at BT, which has been arguing the toss for months 'about not yet seeing the business case' for investment, they are also of key importance to those us seeking to develop alternative approaches, such as municipal/cooperative fibre networks.

If OFCOM have a thorough grasp of the developing marketplace, and there is no reason to believe they don't (yet), this statement on investment could help to open the wallets of numerous potential players in the emerging FTTx space, not least those providers of patient capital that may be crucial to municipal/cooperative network development.

Read the full speech, should you wish to, here.