Archive for category Latest Broadband News
UK broadband speeds increase but rural divide is growing
Posted by Jeremy in Latest Broadband News on February 4, 2012
Telecoms industry regulator Ofcom has announced that the average speed of broadband connections in the UK increased in 2011 by almost 22 percent.
The national average connection speed now stands at 7.6Mbps, up from the average of 6.2Mbps that was reported the previous year (2010). The announcement came as Ofcom published a report on UK fixed-line broadband, which looked at the quality of broadband connection over six months between May and November 2011 and focused solely on domestic broadband speeds.
Some customers on copper-based broadband packages advertised as offering speeds of up to 24Mbps and those claiming speeds in excess of 24Mbps experienced a fall in speed, with the previous year’s averages of 7.4Mbps and 38.2Mbps falling to 7.0Mbps and 35.5Mbps respectively.
Migration of services to newer infrastructures and an increase in rural customers meaning a greater distance to junction boxes is believed to be responsible for the fall.
The biggest issue raised though is the growing gap between broadband speeds available in urban areas and those available to rural-based consumers.
Broadband operators are reluctant to roll out fibre and cable broadband services in rural areas as the cost of installing the required infrastructure can not be recouped in places that have low populations, meaning that the options available to consumers in these areas tend to be limited to dial-up or other slower options. The lack of choice is apparent if you read broadband reviews on any broadband comparison site.
The government has assigned £530 million of funding to improving fixed-line broadband service throughout the country but managing director at C4L Matt Hawkins said in a statement this week that he believes the problems with rural broadband services can be solved if alternatives to fixed-line broadband were considered:
“When it comes to rural broadband, the trouble is that it’s just not profitable enough for most large providers to expand from their established customer base in urban areas to more remote communities. As a result, it’s down to local government and initiatives such as the Rural Community Broadband Fund to reach out to the roughly 25 percent of the country who aren’t currently covered,”
He continued: “In order to do this, they need to explore all available technologies for connecting communities, whether fibre connections, wireless transmission or even satellite broadband. Most importantly, any connection needs to be both fast and reliable: there’s no point in connecting remote areas if that connection can be just as easily severed.”
UK broadband speeds far from fastest in Europe
Posted by Jeremy in Latest Broadband News on February 2, 2012
A report by online content delivery company Akamai has revealed that the UK is still a fair way away from being able to boast its residents have access to the fastest broadband in Europe.
Akamai’s ‘State of the Internet’ report, published every quarter, ranks the UK 17th in Europe in terms of average connection speed. UK web users currently receive an average speed of 5.1 Mbps, while consumers in the Netherlands- who took the top spot- have access to speeds that average 8.5 Mbps.
There are no UK cities listed in the top 100 global places that have access to the highest average connection speed. The best ranked UK city is Bradford, which with an average speed of 6.7 Mbps comes in at 125. The nation’s capital, London, averages a mere 4 Mbps.
The city with the greatest average connection speed in the world was judged to be Taegu in South Korea, whose residents and visitors can expect an average connection speed of 21.5 Mbps. The top spots in the list were dominated by other Korean locations, with Japanese cities also ranking well.
The report shows that the UK is still some way from achieving the target the Government set to ensure the union could boast the fastest and most comprehensive broadband network in Europe by 2015. The aim is to give at least 90 percent of residents and businesses access to broadband speeds of 100 Mbps.
Akamai’s director of market intelligence David Belson believes that while there is still plenty of work to do to improve broadband accessibility, through correctly implemented funding schemes the target is still achievable.
Belson said: “Lots of governments have put funding forward but it will take time for that funding to manifest itself into the actual rollout of fibre in ducts and on poles. This should start to have an impact in the coming years. Hopefully the people that are responsible for the allocation of funding and the projects themselves won’t waste too much time providing what is necessary for this to happen.”
TfL to pick London Tube Wi-Fi provider in the spring
Posted by Jeremy in Latest Broadband News on January 29, 2012
The winner of the bid to provide Wi-Fi services to the London Underground network will be announced in the spring, Transport for London (TfL) has announced. The wireless service should be up and running in time for the Olympic Games, which take place in the capital this summer. The winning bid will have exclusive rights to provide Wi-Fi at 120 stations on the network.
The bid tender document states that the winning supplier will host and maintain a service that will allow travellers to access web content, with travel information, entertainment, news and sport sites available to access for free. Other services may be chargeable, but it is the responsibility of the winning supplier to manage every aspect of the service.
While the service will not be available on trains, it will be available at stations situated deep underground, where mobile signals are currently unavailable.
TfL had stated that they would announce the winning bid by the end of 2011, although the organisation promises that the contract will be awarded and the service in place before the Olympics start. The original contract will run for five years but if it proves successful, could be extended.
BT carried out a trial of Wi-Fi services at Charing Cross station in November 2010 and following a positive response from passengers, TfL opened bidding for the network-wide contract in March 2011.
The plan experienced difficulties and was temporarily shelved after bidding providers were asked to help fund the £150 million proposal, with many expressing disallusionment at being asked to assist financially. Concerns were also raised about whether the installation of the network would be completed in time when it was revealed that engineers could only gain access to the tunnels for a maximum of three hours per night.
The project is part of a wider plan by Mayor Boris Johnson to ensure that London has a comprehensive wireless network in place in the city by the start of the Olympics. The plan orginally intended to include buses but that idea has since been scrapped.