Government joins international telecoms entity to boost British broadband

Since 2019, problems of network reliability and security have been high on the agendas of many different nations.

Now, in a recent move to improve the capabilities of their infrastructure, multiple nations including the UK, the US, Australia, Canada, and Japan released a statement jointly of an intent to create Global Coalition on Telecommunications (GCOT).

The GCOT is designed to be a new alliance to advance international cooperation, encourage communication and push innovation in the telecoms sector.

The new accord has established a joint commitment to work in partnership to support more resilient, secure and innovative telecoms networks. The nations intend to zero in on key areas, like future technology such as 6G connectivity, telecoms security and supply chain diversity, coordinating approaches to developing standards for the industry.

Announcing the UK’s involvement, government ministers commented that broadband networks were crucial to the country’s economy. They added that ensuring both network security and resilience was also a priority.

The government asserted that telecommunications markets were global and by collaborating with the world’s largest economies, Britain could stay at the forefront of all aspects of the field of telecoms.

The UK government’s commitment to participating in GCOT was confirmed, alongside its plans for a consultation to get a full picture on how to enhance broadband coverage in the more remote parts of the country. These include business premises that are considered as being in areas difficult to update using physical telecommunications cables, such as its smaller islands and more mountainous regions.