The Government has been urged to dig deep for next generation broadband.

Broadband campaigner Glyn Pitchford maintains the new technology is so important that, however tight the finances, money must be found to back it.

His comments come as the City Region prepares to receive a new report in September detailing the challenges that need to be met.

Mr Pitchford, elected West Midlands Business Council business representative on the City Region board, has been tasked with pushing impetus and interest in the project following BT’s recent announcement to speed plans for super-fast broadband.

More than 110,000 homes and businesses in the West Midlands will benefit.

But he is concerned at the Government’s “lack of urgency”, citing its recent Digital Britain report which offered a policy commitment to speeds of just two megabits per second – far less than the 100 Mbps being targeted.

And, suggested the report, the UK’s competitive markets would provide the stimulus for further investment without any need for Government help.

Mr Pitchford stated: “This just is not good enough. Other developed economies are recognising the importance of investment in next generation broadband and are pursuing different strategies to achieve this.

“We need the Government to get involved. Without some form of public sector intervention, next generation broadband will not be introduced in the City Region for the foreseeable future.”

Mr Pitchford said he acknowledged that, with the surge in the national debt as a result of recession and the banking bailout, money was tight.

However he a re-think was required.

Mr Pitchford went on: “We need to drag the economy of the West Midlands out of recession, and broadband will do exactly that.

“I say it is a question of prioritising projects.

“Given the work being done by the photonics team at Aston University, the Photonics Cluster (UK) at Aston Science Park and QinetiQ in Malvern, the West Midlands should be leading this revolution. It would be tragic if we threw away such an opportunity.

“This is all about the economy of the region. It is about skills, jobs and inward investment.

“Given that this issue cuts across seven metropolitan borough boundaries we have to pull this together in partnership. If there is to be no partnership between the public and private sectors then we will end up with a patchwork quilt, with gaps in our region due to a lack of investment in infrastructure.

“Then the West Midlands will lag further behind all the other regions of the UK.

“I am aware that painful decisions are having to be made and many people are hurting. But next generation broadband is going to be the biggest driver of this region’s economy over the next decade, and we must make the most of it.

“It is critical that the Government gets behind this.”

A marketing and promotional strategy was also required so the message could be communicated to business and householders. “There is a need for the Government to educate and inform and train SMEs in potential opportunities and applications arising from high
speed broadband.

“The private sector will also play its part in partnership with both local and central government. There will be a number of different ways of funding the infrastructure necessary to deliver next generation broadband, which could include the innovative use of Accelerated Development Zones.”

Broadband currently operates at between two and eight megabits per second. The aim is to get that up to 100 by the date of the 2012 London Olympics.

Eight BT exchanges in the region – Fallings Park, Great Barr, Leamore, Northern (Soho, Birmingham), Nuneaton, Tettenhall, Walsall and Wednesbury – are among the latest UK locations due to be upgraded next year.

It takes in an arc over the north Black Country which reaches down through Bloxwich and Walsall and touches the northern end of the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham.

The acceleration of BT’s plans will see 1.5 million UK homes have access to super-fast broadband by early summer 2010. A million of those homes will be hooked up by March, which is a doubling of the original pace of deployment.

The plan is the first chapter in BT’s longer-term programme to make super-fast broadband available to 40 per cent of the UK – or some 10 million homes – by 2012.

Mr Pitchford said fibre optics – replacing copper cable – used far less energy, offering “enormous savings in the carbon footprint”.