Broadband News

100Mb broadband should ‘leapfrog’ communities

Garnet Roach garnet@consumerchoices.co.uk

Communities that have been excluded from current broadband technologies should be the first to get next generation fibre connections, the Ofcom Consumer Panel has said (04-09-08).

An advisory group to the telecoms regulator, the Consumer Panel’s chairwoman Anna Bradley conceded that bringing speeds of up to 100Mb to areas excluded from current generation connections would be costly but said that it was vital to prevent the UK’s digital divide from widening.

"We could provide a way for consumers who are excluded from first generation broadband to leapfrog straight to the next generation"

“We already know that the economic case for next generation access will not stack up in some areas and we can predict which areas that will be. So let’s address these issues alongside commercial roll-out, not after it,” she said.

Although BT's (www.BT.com) copper wire network currently covers the vast majority of the country, some are still too far from their local exchanges to get broadband, while others struggle with painfully slow speeds and poor connections.

“If we are imaginative and use a mix of private and public business models, we could provide a way for consumers who are excluded from first generation broadband to leapfrog straight to the next generation,” concluded Bradley.

Michael Phillips, BroadbandChoices.co.uk product director, said: “There is no doubt that next generation broadband would benefit the British economy and its citizens alike, but the cost of developing a fibre network that would reach even the most remote areas would be immense and it is unlikely that businesses will invest their cash in areas that serve only a few thousand homes or less.

“There have been claims in recent months that the digital divide is disappearing, but this is not the case. Some 35 per cent of British households are still without internet access - many in areas that are unlikely to see next generation broadband any time soon - and Ofcom and the Government need to look at other ways of bridging the divide too,” he concluded.

Related article - Boost your broadband speed.

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