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Doubt cast on need for next generation broadband
(03-12-07) - Both Ofcom and BT have questioned the current need for a fibre network in the UK, following the Government’s summit on next generation broadband last week.
A full fibre-to-the-home broadband network would allow speeds of up to 100Mb, already commonplace in Japan and South Korea, and being now developed in France and Germany.
However, while Competitiveness Minister Stephen Timms said that such super-fast connections are “essential” to the UK, Peter Philips, Ofcom’s head of strategy told the BBC, “we need significant evidence that such a network is required and I don’t think it exists yet”.
“We have to ask ourselves what would be the disadvantage if your investment comes later than others. We would be able to learn from the experiences in other countries,” he added.
While it was decided at last week’s summit to take the best practices for a next generation network from various pilots across the UK, the telecoms industry is still unsure of who would be footing the substantial costs.
While many would argue that BT (www.BT.com), whose wholesale arm is responsible for maintaining the current copper wire network used for delivering broadband, should take on the task of upgrading the ADSL network - the lack of clear demand from consumers casts doubt on the economic viability of such investment.
Peter McCarthy-Ward, BT’s director of equivalence told the BBC, “No one would be more delighted if a commercial incentive emerged that enabled us to fibre the nation,” but added that “we are not facing large numbers of people today who are constrained by their bandwidth”.
Although BT is preparing to upgrade exchanges to speeds of up to 24Mb Boadband for its 21 Century Network, which will begin rolling out next year - to be completed in 2011 - those in rural areas who are today experiencing the biggest problems with their current connections will have a long wait before their exchanges are upgraded.
Residents of Calder Valley near Bradford struggle to receive existing technologies and are meeting this week to discuss their broadband problems. They said: “The UK Government said this week that significantly faster broadband is crucial to the UK’s economic growth, and yet once again the Upper Calder Valley is in danger of being left behind. Especially if BT adopts a similar strategy to its ADSL rollout where the technology was initially only installed where it made economic sense.”
For around half of the UK, Virgin Media’s (www.VirginMedia.com) already developed cable network could provide faster speeds much sooner. Serving 52 per cent of the country, Virgin Media is trialling speeds of up to 50Mb - by far the fastest in the UK.
However, Michael Phillips, BroadbandChoices.co.uk product director, warned that cable customers should not count on getting much more of their full advertised speed than ADSL customers. “Anyone wanting 50Mb broadband will be likely to want to do a lot of downloading and TV and video streaming,” he said. “But Virgin Media’s traffic management policies mean that even with such fast speeds, heavy downloaders will soon find their speeds cut quite drastically at peak times - which obviously, is when people will want to use their expensive connections.”
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