Executive Insight: Why the UK's rural broadband initiative has failed

According to Chris Smedley, Chief Executive of British Isles fibre network operator, Geo, boosting rural broadband in the UK with £530 million of public money should have involved a fibre equivalent to local loop unbundling. Instead the supposed magic bullet - passive infrastructure access (PIA) - which should have enabled competitive players access to the incumbent's ducts and poles, was limited to residential broadband. Without the ability to serve businesses, for Geo the investment case just didn't stack up.