Matthew Howett, principal analyst at Assembly Research, said: “The original target for 2025 was always an ambitious one, but crucially one that industry felt it could deliver with the right enabling regulatory environment.”
“While progress was made with that, a number of barriers still remain. To depart from the original target with four years still left to run suggests perhaps that mountains can’t be moved after all, and the remaining barriers are permanent ones.”
Gigabit broadband: Watered-down plans a 'kick in the teeth'
Another observer - Matthew Howett, founder of research firm Assembly - added: "The original target for 2025 was always an ambitious one, but crucially one that industry felt it could deliver with the right enabling regulatory environment.
"While progress was made with that, a number of barriers still remain. To depart from the original target with four years still left to run suggests perhaps that mountains can't be moved after all."
High charges for rural broadband investigated by Ofcom
"We know these are the hardest to reach and most expensive households to connect, where there are real barriers and real costs to deploying broadband, and where further government subsidy may be needed," said Matthew Howett, founder of research firm Assembly.
"Sometimes eye-watering quotes might arise because of estimates made without full engineering surveys having yet been completed. We're still at the early stages of the scheme so Ofcom's investigation may result in useful guidance when calculating quotes for future requests."
TalkTalk: Will a go-private deal ring the changes for the troubled telecoms firm?
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Imagination Technologies this week confirmed the appointment of telecoms veteran Simon Beresford-Wylie as its next chief executive, marking a new chapter for the British chipmaker.
Matthew Howett, principal analyst at Assembly Research, described Beresford-Wylie as a “well-liked” figure who was a “safe pair of hands”.
Italian broadband monopoly
After decades of efforts to open up the market, Italy is the only example of a country backing off,” said Luca Schiavoni, a telecoms analyst at Assembly, a regulatory research firm in London. TIM — formerly a public company — held a monopoly over Italy’s telecommunication infrastructure for many years until new players entered the market. When TIM was a monopolist, telecom operators often blamed it for hindering access to the network, the analyst noted, adding that regulators should impose remedies and strict conditions “to avoid the mistakes of the past.”
There’s no reason to believe that a single operator would bring any efficiency from a technical point of view, noted Schiavoni, the analyst at Assembly, arguing that the government decided to step in to ensure that the infrastructure doesn’t fall into the hands of foreign investors.
Vodafone calls for 5G auction to be scrapped
Telecoms analyst Mathew Howett, from Assembly Research, said: "There is very clearly a cost to the industry in terms of replacing Huawei earlier than operators might have done naturally.
"Government can't expect the industry to speed up deployment of networks if they pile on additional cost and slow down that rollout."
But he added: "The last time the government directed Ofcom with regards to spectrum - the liberalisation of bands for 4G and associated annual licence fees - legal challenges went on for a decade."
Huawei decision 'may delay 5G by three years and cost UK £7bn'
Matthew Howett, the founder of the research firm Assembly, said: “Mobile phone operators have so far cherry-picked the major urban areas to deploy 5G, but changing the rules now will mean delays for the rest of the country.”
Previous research conducted by Assembly on behalf of the telecoms firms BT, Vodafone, O2 and Three, concluded the UK would suffer an economic hit of £6.8bn from not deploying 5G and risk falling behind continental Europe.
“We also thought it would set the UK back 18 to 24 months, but Dowden went further and said it would be three years,” Howett said. “Anywhere where coverage is already poor is now going to have to wait longer.”
Huawei: Why it will be difficult to remove 5G hardware?
Chinese tech firm Huawei banned from UK 5G network, culture secretary announces
The ban on Huawei will delay the UK's full rollout of 5G by two to three years and the transition to an alternative will cost "up to £2 billion".
Tech expert Matthew Howett has estimated the delay's cost to the economy to be as much as £6.8 billion "in terms of lost benefit".
"It's about attracting new industries and new investment from manufacturers that want to take advantage of the 5G capability - all that gets lost if you slow us down," he said.
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Huawei's days in the UK could be numbered
Banning Huawei is easy... the hard part comes next
Stripping out Huawei 5G kit will cost telecoms industry £2bn
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The consequences of ditching Huawei in the UK
Huawei: What would happen if the UK ditched the Chinese firm?
"It's not only a very expensive process for the operators, but it's going to be a time-consuming one as well because they need to get access to all those sites to make the changes," added Matthew Howett from Assembly, the consultancy that wrote Mobile UK's report.
One thing practically everyone agrees on is that the matter needs to be settled once and for at a time when so much else about the economy is uncertain.
"These procurement decisions can take 18 months to two years to finalise and it takes time to ramp up supply to meet the demand," said Mr Howett.
"So this isn't just a question of overnight deciding not to use Huawei - it would take many years to do it properly."
BT could sell stake in Openreach
Virgin Media and O2 in UK merger talks to build rival to BT
Telefonica, Liberty Said to Weigh O2, Virgin Merger in U.K.
“This deal has been mooted for a while, and makes a lot of sense given the trend toward fixed and wireless network convergence,” said Matthew Howett, founder of London-based analyst firm Assembly Research.
A deal that brings together a fixed-line operator with a mobile provider is more likely to be approved by regulators than mobile-to-mobile consolidation, Howett said. “It doesn’t reduce competition in mobile, and preserves the four-player market that Ofcom and others have been committed to,” he said, referring to Britain’s telecommunications regulator.
