A new report shows that E-health can save each country tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars over the next ten years and energy savings of 25% can be achieved by smart grids. Additionally, patients and older people can be monitored by video nurses, linked to video-based community support networks.

In investigating and discussing Fibre to the Home (FttH) applications such as e-health, e-learning, e-government and smart grids it becomes increasingly clear that to provide a universal service for these applications an independent end-to-end infrastructure access regime is required by the authorities if they are to provide their services more efficiently and effectively.

Governments need to be able to provide these services to all their citizens, regardless of whether they have an Internet or telephone subscription with the telcos.

In order for organisations to be able to use the national broadband infrastructure successfully it needs to be made available on an incremental cost basis. It cannot be priced according to vertically-integrated network/service structures. The rate of return on infrastructure investments required for vertically-integrated telecoms is double that of the Return On Investment (ROI) required by utilities-based infrastructure. Governments will not be able to afford to deliver these services based on the ROI required by vertically-integrated telecoms companies.

The solution will involve changes to telecommunications and energy legislation so that existing infrastructure can be used for these services. It would make no sense, and it would be far too costly, to overbuild existing national telecoms networks to avoid expensive telecoms charges.

It is essential that the various government departments – Environment, Energy, Health and Education work together with government departments in charge of infrastructure policies such as communications and energy. Without the input of the users of these national services the traditional infrastructure departments will continue to develop policies along the lines they have done so for the last 50 years.