BT ex- CTO 'for sale' on eBay

Bidders wanted

Peter Cochrane - the former CTO of BT and a keen supporter of the Access to Broadband Campaign (ABC) - is up for sale on eBay. Well kinda.

Cochrane is delivering a keynote speech at the Broadband End Game conference on November 22 in London. And according to the sales patter: "Bidders have the chance to bid on sponsoring that speech and being associated with this radical thinker and technology strategist at a leading edge broadband conference."

Whoever wins the auction also gets the chance to have their company's name "at the forefront of the Digital Revolution". Oh, and there's a signed copy of Cochrane's book Uncommon Sense thrown in as well. And a free ticket to the event worth a bob or three.

ABC, which is organising the conference, reckons there's too much complacency about broadband in the UK and wants the industry and Government to think beyond ADSL.

"In order to win the broadband end game with an infrastructure which will deliver what is required by 2012, we need to develop a cohesive strategy now," said Lindsey Annison, co-founder of ABC, says.

"We need to look to put fibre into every home and business, and wireless into the first mile where this is not feasible. Apathy has no place in the race to win market share of the global knowledge economy, and this nation needs to forge ahead with partnerships and innovative solutions to our problems not sit on its laurels with ADSL.

"The digital divide within the UK is widening as some urban areas are offered the options of 24Mbps, whilst many, many others are stuck with 512kbps to 2Mbps asymmetrical connections. Other nations now offer up to 100Mbps symmetrical connections to each end user in these same market segments today. We are fast falling behind."

At the time of writing Cochrane attracted a dozen bids with the highest currently standing at £230.

The auction can be found here. ®