Faster Broadband for the UK
The Government will have to improve the broadband speeds of over 3 million British households if it is going to deliver on it’s promise of universal 2Mbit /sec connections by 2012.
New research has found that more than 4,000 British homes are connected to a BT exchange without ADSL equipment providing broadband access. A number of urban areas are as badly affected as rural locations. Lengthy phone lines are providing a massive drain on connection speeds. To achieve speeds of 2Mbit/sec or more, lines normally need to be less than 4km long. A number of areas such as Basingstoke in Hampshire, half of the telephone lines are more than 6km from the exchange.
Ofcom found that 85% of broadband connections in the UK have speeds of 2Mbit/sec or greater. BT stated that Britain is one of the most advanced countries in the world for broadbband connections, where over 99% of the population have access to broadbband. However, it must be remembered that BT classes connections of 256Kbits/sec as broadband. It is widely accepted within the telecoms sector that a broadbband connection is classified as at least 2Mbit/sec.
In a recent announcement BT says it will continue to work with local authorities to address broadband issues and it hopes that quick fixes such as iPlate, which can improve connection speeds by reducing electrical interference will help improve these issues in the short term.
On the 17th of June Lord Carter announced that a 50p per month fee will be levied with everyone with a fixed line telephone connection. The 50p fee was the big surprise of the Digital Britain report. The money generated from the 50p per month fee is earmarked for the section of the country, where many homes are miles away from existing networks.
Antony Walker, chief executive of the Broadband Stakeholder Group, thinks that the money needs to be targeted at rural areas. Hes believes that, the money should ensure that the 30% of the country estimated to be bypassed by comercial fast broadband plans can enjoy speed of up to 50Mb/sec by 2017.
BT presently has plans to upgrade 40% of easy to reach British urban households to Fibre to the Cabinet technology or FTTC by 2012.
Virgin Media is also upgrading its network so that it can deliver speeds of up to Mbp/sec to mainly urban and suburban areas.
Prime minister Gordon Brown has said that broadband is as essential as water, electricity and gas and pledged that the recommendations of the Digital Britain report will offer access to all families. He said the report would make the UK the broadband world leader.
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