|
Fibre to the cabinet is
the cheapest option
|
Fibre network could top £28 billion
Garnet Roach garnet@consumerchoices.co.uk
A warning of the “tough choices” ahead has been issued by a report saying that the cost of taking a fibre broadband connection into every home could reach as much as £28.8 billion (08-09-08).
The report from the Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG), which advises the Government on all things broadband, warned that “the costs of deploying in rural areas will far exceed the costs in urban areas”, posing difficult choices for investors.
|
"The costs of deploying in rural areas will far exceed the costs in urban areas"
|
The report looked at a number of different technologies, and although fibre to the home - the most expensive option - could cost as much as £28.8 billion, cheaper alternatives were also examined.
Taking fibre to street level boxes - also known as fibre to the cabinet - would only cost £5.1 billion - while still allowing estimated speeds of between 30Mb and 100Mb.
However, this is still up to four times more than the telecoms sector spent setting up today’s broadband services, added the BSG.
A third option, to take fibre to homes and businesses via shared cables - which would see a small number of premises sharing a 2.5GB line - has been priced at £25.5 billion.
Antony Walker, chief executive of the BSG which drew up the report, said: “The scale of the costs involved means that the transition to superfast broadband will be challenging.”
“We hope that this report will help to ensure an informed public debate on the key policy and regulatory decisions that lie ahead,” he said.
In setting out the different options - and costs - of deploying next generation broadband services, the BSG warned that taking fibre to rural homes would cost far more than deploying a network in an urban area.
Taking the cheapest option, the BSG estimates that getting fibre to the cabinets near the first 58 per cent of households would cost about £1.9 billion. The next 26 per cent would cost about £1.4 billion and the final 16 per cent would cost £1.8 billion.
But despite the questions this poses investors, Walker added that increased broadband take-up could make the situation more palatable for investors. “If operators could achieve a higher level of take-up in rural areas than we have predicted in our study, then the business case for deployment in those areas could improve significantly,” he concluded.
Michael Phillips, BroadbandChoices.co.uk product director, said: “Because of the disproportionate costs of taking fibre to rural areas the UK runs a real risk of massively deepening the digital divide; with inner-city homes and businesses connecting to the internet at speeds of up to 100Mb while rural homes languish on current generation broadband at real speeds of less than 5Mb.”
Related article - Boost your broadband speed.
| 
contact us 
