It is important that Britain doesn't fall behind with high-speed broadband, one industry expert claims.

The UK government's leading advisory group on broadband, Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG), has warned that it would be bad for business if Britain was to lag behind its competitors in terms of internet connection speed.

Kip Meek, chairman of the BSG, said that the group had set out a programme of issues that need to be resolved in April last year, in a report called 'Pipe Dreams?'.

He explained: "The review is very much addressing what issues might be appropriate for the government to intervene on.

"The key question is whether or not the government should spend substantial amounts of money to make [high-speed broadband] happen."

Kip added that his own view was that at the moment this is not going to be the case, and that the BSG will find ways of creating "the right investment environment", for the private sector [to contribute] to bringing high-speed broadband to Britain.

On February 22nd 2008 the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform launched an independent review into provision of high-speed broadband (100mbps or more).

According to the government, at the end of 2007, 70 per cent of the population were internet users and more than half of homes had broadband.

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