By Natasha Lomas, 22 February 2008 15:10
NEWS
The government has launched an independent review on barriers to rolling out high speed, next-generation broadband networks in the UK which it says are essential for the future economic success of the country. It is also sniffing around fibre.
The list from A to Z
Click on the links below to find out more...
A is for ADSL
B is for BT
C is for Cable & Wireless
D is for Dial-up
E is for Education
F is for Fibre
G is for Goonhilly
H is for HSDPA
I is for In-flight
J is for Janet
K is for Kingston
L is for Landlines
M is for Murdoch
N is for Next generation
O is for Ofcom
P is for Power lines
Q is for Quad-play
R is for Remote working
S is for Satellite phones
T is for Trains
U is for Unbundling
V is for VoIP
W is for WiMax
X is for Xbox
Y is for YouTube
Z is for Zombies
Business and competitiveness minister, Shriti Vadera, said the UK's comms infrastructure must be able to respond to future technology development. "We must not be in a situation where our creativity and growth of our businesses are stifled by inadequate communications and regulatory frameworks," she said in a statement.
Areas the review will consider include whether the public sector has a role to play to help minimise the cost of investment to the private sector; whether Ofcom has adequate powers of regulation around high speed access; and possible barriers to collaborative models of investment involving telecommunications suppliers, content providers and others.
The government has also asked industry lobbying association the Broadband Stakeholders Group to look at the economics of fibre deployment - specifically whether laying fibre to the home is viable without first deploying fibre to the cabinet.
Tiscali CEO, Mary Turner, recently told silicon.com fibre to the cabinet - aka backhaul - needs to be "commercialised" as BT is not currently obliged by Ofcom to resell it.
She said: "The bandwidth is there, it needs to be commercialised so that we can afford to actually buy that and resell it at an affordable price to the consumer. And that's the argument and it is a point that we have made to Ofcom. And we are having those discussions with Ofcom on a regular basis because we have to because the discussion has moved on to fibre to the curb."
The government said the review, which will be led by Francesco Caio, vice chairman of investment bank Lehman Brothers, is intended to complement Ofcom's review on next generation access. It will report in the autumn to the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Vadera added in a statement: "The way we will do business, access many government services, as well as information and entertainment, will change beyond recognition over our lifetime. New technologies will push the boundaries of today's communications infrastructure.
"We must be ready to respond to future technological developments, which will place unprecedented challenges for our communications networks over the coming decade."
Comments
There are 3 comments. Join the discussion
1. Radical Meldrew
How about getting the ISps to deliver the full advertised bandwidth before looking into faster delivery methods? I get anything between 20-80% of the full advertised rate depending on the time of day.
2. misceng
How fast is fast enough. It all depends on the user's demands of the service. Like Radical Meldrew I would like to get what I pay for. I have an alleged 16MB service which would be right for my needs but what I get varies from 475kb to 9.9MB. I fear that fibre would just be used for more contention between users so the service though probably a bit faster would bear no relationship to the fibre's capacity.
3. Jon Pennycook
Cable companies already have fibre to the cabinet, as do other telcos that have their own local loop. Perhaps these ISPs that are complaining should invest in dealing with alternative providers in areas where there is a choice, and invest more in their own infrastructure, in order to deliver a more reliable and realistic service.