BBC 'shouldn't pay for broadband upgrades'
News brought to you by Skint Tariffs, providers of cheap broadband deals.The BBC should not have to pay to upgrade broadband networks, according to telecoms regulator Ofcom's chief executive, Ed Richards.
Mr Richard told MPs that, although the popularity of the BBCs iPlayer had lead to some problems with capacity on broadband networks, the broadcaster should not be asked to pay for upgrades.
Speaking to a joint session of the Commons Culture, Media & Sport and Business and Enterprise committees, he said that content providers could be asked to support infrastructure upgrades.
"[But] it is not necessarily the only way it can happen and it is not necessarily the way we would anticipate it will happen," he said.
"I am not convinced myself that the right answer to that is to get the BBC to pay for the iPlayer."
Instead, network operators should shoulder the financial burden of upgrading broadband infrastructure, a cost which would be passed on to the consumer.
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