NEWS
The government has revealed plans to create a universal service commitment for broadband that would see every last one of the UK's broadband 'notspots' filled in. However, it has not yet made a decision about whether it has a role to play in delivering 100 per cent coverage of next generation broadband.
The Digital Britain interim report from minister for communications, technology and broadcasting Lord Stephen Carter, published today, calls for every home in the country to be broadband-enabled by 2012.
According to the EU, four per cent of homes in rural areas of the UK are not within reach of broadband access.
The best of silicon.com photos
1. Photos: Second Life gets down to business
2. Photos: Taking the wraps off Windows 7
3. Photos: Honda kick starts motorcycle safety tech
4. Minority Report: 10 Apple patents to watch
5. Photos: Cops use tech to point the finger of suspicion
However, only 56 per cent of UK homes had a broadband connection last year, figures from the Office for National Statistics show.
Under the plans set out by Lord Carter, all Britons would be guaranteed a connection speed of up to 2Mbps "delivered by a mixture of fixed and mobile, wired and wireless means".
The call for more widespread broadband has already received some industry backing.
Strategy and markets development partner for Ofcom, Peter Phillips, told a conference last week: "It's even more important [than a next-generation rollout] to ensure that all UK residents have access to high-speed broadband."
Chief executive of the Broadband Stakeholder Group, Anthony Walker, also believes the question of availability must be dealt with.
"Where possible it is now time to address those 'notspots' in terms of availability and I think that's really on the basis that broadband is increasingly being seen as a basic utility for households, both in terms of the benefits of connectivity and also things like access to services such as BBC iPlayer and others," he told silicon.com recently.
The report also details the government's intention to tackle 'broadband refuseniks' - those people who can get fat pipe access but for whatever reason choose not to - by encouraging the development of "public service champions of universal take-up".
On the issue of next-generation broadband, however...
Comments
There are 5 comments. Join the discussion
1. Peter Trinder
In West Sussex we could not wait and have a wireless network connecting us to a Unix server which goes out to the hot pipe. The provider has been awarded the top ISP award in this category. They claim over 500 customers already. Nice fast service. Just a small rectangular TX/RX box on a pole on my roof leading down by Ethernet cable.
2. Chris Goodman
Same New Labour, plans that cost but no idea where to get the money. It will be the people of the country who will pay for this infrastructure in the form of increased fibre optic line charges and broadband charges. It is just another form of taxation that will be imposed but without the grubby fingers of Labour getting their hands on it - except, of course, all that lovely VAT they will collect and installers NI going into the kitty.
3. Lionel A Smith
We have a broadband connection at home but much of the time it repeatedly disconnects making online transactions problematic. This includes banking, software updates and online purchasing. Connection drops have cause trouble during software roll-outs and updates (that went wrong) whilst setting up a new computer system. I still have a legacy of mess to sort out. Also I am repeatedly logged out of my own web site whilst updating via ftp because of drop outs. Dial up is often quicker and more reliable.
The cable broadband tech' support try to blame it on one having a third party internet security installation and ask you to turn it off whilst on-line to diagnose! Other favourites were those running Vista or having the wrong type of router or the wrong type of anything else that just happens to be on their check list.
I am considering my options as their service is not fit for purpose.
By the time I finish writing this the connection will have probably dropped again before I send. This is why I always create posts in a WP so that I don't haver to start all-over all of the time.
4. Chris Stening, Easynet Connect
The Internet is arguably the UK’s most important modern infrastructure. Homes and businesses across the UK rely on their Internet connections everyday, so any measures to bring the technology to as many people as possible is a good thing.
The question remains as to how the UK’s broadband should be delivered; through the existing copper phone network (DSL), fibre optics or wireless? Many argue that fibre is the only solution, resulting in copper being committed to the scrap heap prematurely. But fibre, having been around since the 1970s, is hardly a ‘new’ technology either. If the government wants to commit to broadband in every home, then the phone lines that run into almost every house in the country offer a ready-made solution. Copper based connections can easily exceed the 2Mbps speeds that Lord Carter’s report calls for, and recent innovations have reached speeds of 40Mbps. This is more than enough for most homes and business today.
5. Simon Allen
As has been pointed out:
1) Govt makes ruling
2) ISPs provide the service
3) ISPs charge all other users
4) Govt takes the cake and credit.
Then ... the Tories introduced cable TV and said it would revolutionise blah-blah. But they gave no money so practically nothing happened.
Now ... 20 years later, the Labourites are doing exactly the same thing!
It must be time to take my pills.