Ah, November 2001 … those were the days … I was working as a media and telecoms lawyer in D.C., busily discarding branded mouse pads and logo-emblazoned coffee cups as many of my firm’s fixed wireless clients (both manufacturers and service providers) went under. Over in the U.K. things were looking grim too: It was in November 2001 that the dream of Broadband Britain was in peril. The Broadband Stakeholders Group issued its first report to government, recommending strong action.

Six years later and not much has changed. I’m no longer in D.C. but fixed wireless still stinks and Broadband Britain — as everyone is reporting — is still in danger of being stuck in the slow lane. Stephen Timms MP yesterday hosted a forum on the issue, and I am eager to hear what happened…

So what should the next steps be? I’ll suggest a few Ofcom-related ones. These are easy, folks:

– Ofcom need to be out in the lead with respect to providing credible information about broadband. I was at the London Business School-GCC event a few weeks ago and unfortunately two of the Ofcom speakers repeated the claim that average broadband speeds in the U.K. had doubled over the past year. They did not even use the ‘headline speed’ disclaimer that appears in Ofcom’s printed materials. The truth is that Ofcom has probably not done enough testing to say with any degree of accuracy what actual broadband speeds are available to the public and business.

– Following on the previous point, Ofcom need to undertake a research programme concerning broadband. There are examples out there. The Portugese regulator, ANACOM, recently released empirical research on broadband speeds. (details here). New Zealand (through its Commerce Commission) is going one step further, recently retaining Epitiro to conduct extensive research on the quality (speed, reliability, etc.) of the broadband experience in that country. (details here). We’re told:

‘Epitiro will be providing data on up to ten of New Zealand’s largest ISPs from multiple sites around the country. Epitiro’s ISP-I service will measure over ten different performance metrics providing detailed figures on the reliability of Internet connections, how long it takes to connect to the Internet, download and upload speeds and the performance of both ping and DNS lookups. The service can also be configured to monitor voice and video traffic. The quality of broadband provided by New Zealand’s ISPs will be monitored every fifteen minutes, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, giving The Commerce Commission an incredibly accurate picture of the relative performance of New Zealand’s ISPs.’

Let’s hope Ofcom find the resources to provide similar information to U.K. policy makers and the public…

– And finally .. baby steps… baby steps… Ofcom should amend its definition of broadband. If I recall correctly, most Ofcom glossaries define broadband as anything faster than ISDN (128 kbit/s). That wasn’t even broadband in 2001!