Posts Tagged rural broadband
British Consumers are Split by Urban Broadband Fund
Posted by Dai in Latest Broadband News on April 19, 2012
Recent customer polls conducted by the ISP Review have indicated a striking divide in public opinion regarding the direction of government funding towards super-fast broadband roll out between urban and rural areas.
Chancellor George Osborne has pledged £100 million to the £100 million to the Urban Broadband Fund Urban Broadband Fund, which is dedicated to supplying ‘ultrafast’ fibre optic broadband speeds of 80-100 Megabits per second to ten of Britain’s biggest cities. Starting with the capitals Cardiff, London, Edinburgh and Belfast, the project will push these cities into being ’super connected cities’, boosting their economies into becoming technologically advanced competitors with other major economies. A further £50 million has been added, focused solely on supporting fibre broadband to smaller cities and towns.
The poll found nearly 52% of broadband consumers supported the government’s plans to fund £150 million into an urban broadband development project, against 48% who believe that the money would be better spent towards developing an alternative rural project. For all intents and purposes this split goes right down the middle and indicates the difficulties the government is facing in trying to supply the technology to the whole country fairly.
A refined poll however, giving consumers the choice as to where fund should be directed there was a dominant 62% who believed rural development should take precedence, whereas support for the Urban Broadband Fund had only 19% support. Although ISPreview’s results are only comprised of 872 respondents, it does indicate the huge divide in public opinions as to how government funds should be directed.
Critics to the Urban Broadband Fund have asserted that rural regions need the support more. The trend from private companies has been towards developing their fibre broadband networks in bigger cities, because the higher concentration of customers makes them more cost effective that rural regions with fewer customers in harder to reach areas. Many people fear that this is creating a dangerous divide between areas that are or are not highly connected, creating an economic divide as rural businesses struggle to compete and residents are forced to congregate to cities for faster connectivity.
Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt has admitted that more investment is needed to secure a full and fair broadband service across all communities of the United Kingdom and the Rural Broadband Fund could help ensure that. A £100 million investment into urban areas however may seem to contradict this.
For the government the difficult balance lies between the economic value and international competitiveness of connecting major cities with super-fast broadband, compared against the social benefits of ensuring a balanced roll out of broadband connections to every community of the country. These recent polls demonstrate that there is currently no easy answer.
Technology leader warns Lords inquiry UK broadband aims too low
Posted by Jeremy in Latest Broadband News on March 25, 2012
The former chief technology officer for telecoms giant BT has warned that the UK could be “frozen out of the next industrial revolution” due to a lack of funding and ambition in the Government’s national broadband scheme.
Peter Cochrane, who oversaw the introduction of broadband technologies in the UK during his time at BT, criticised the Government’s plans as he gave evidence to the House of Lords inquiry into the robustness of the country’s broadband strategy.
The Government has pledged to make sure the UK can boast Europe’s best superfast broadband infrastructure by 2015, with aims of 90 percent of homes gaining access to download speeds of at least 24Mbps (megabits per second). The remaining 10 percent will receive download speeds of a minimum of 2Mbps.
But Cochrane slammed the plans: “Even our aspirations are low: 20 megabits isn’t superfast. It’s super slow. It’s a candle, while the rest of the world is using the light bulb. The UK risks being frozen out of the next industrial revolution.”
“True, high-speed, unlimited access to the social, economic and democratic benefits the internet brings is a fundamental human right. Yet in terms of broadband, the UK is at the back of the pack. We’re beat by almost every other European country and Asia leaves us for dust. The great decline in our relative global position has saddened me over the years and we need to invest at least £15bn to redress this now.”
There are over 62 million people in 25m homes in the UK but at the moment superfast fibre optic cabling only reaches 250,000 dwellings. In contrast, 6.3m homes in France are connected to fibre services and 16m residences in Russia (a country with a population of 143m) have access to fibre broadband.
The Country Land & Business Association (CLA), which represents over 34,000 rural businesses echoed Cochrane’s concerns: “Even with match-funding from local authorities, it is likely that the government’s commitment of £530m will be insufficient to build a future-proofed superfast broadband network, fit for purpose.”
The CLA and broadband providers around the country anxiously await the committee’s findings.
BT ‘Race to Infinity’ competition winning village to miss out on fibre broadband connection
Posted by Jeremy in Latest Broadband News on March 19, 2012
Telecoms giant BT has admitted that a village in a rural area of Oxfordshire that won its Race to Infinity competition to see superfast broadband installed in rural locations will not benefit from the new fibre connection as it is too far away from the network exchange that serves the area.
Blewbury in Oxfordshire was announced as one of the winning areas in BT’s 2010 competition, which the company hoped would help spark an interest in its new fibre optic broadband service. Neighbouring villages including Aston Tirrold, Aston Upthorpe, Upton and West Hagbourne helped Blewbury to secure the new upgrade but it has been revealed that not all of these locations will benefit from the superfast broadband speeds that will become available when the rollout is complete.
Speaking to local newspaper the Oxford Mail, spokesperson for BT Emma Littlejohn said: “BT cannot guarantee that it will deliver super-fast broadband to West Hagbourne.”
“We clearly stated that when an exchange is enabled, there will be some premises not able to receive fibre. However, we expect every premises attached to the exchange will see an increase in their broadband speeds.”
BT have said on a number of occasions that it will double the speed it offers on its Infinity service from 40Mbps to 80Mbps this year, mainly through its new FTTP (fibre to the premises)-on-demand service. In areas where a fibre connection into the home is not possible, BT will use its FTTC (fibre-to-the-cabinet) system, which uses copper cable to carry the connection into customers’ homes.
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