The government is set
to release its review of a proposal that will decide if firms should get
subsidies to lay higher-speed cables for homes and businesses, as part of an eagerly
anticipated review of the UK's current broadband services and network
infrastructure.
Current Industry predictions
have estimated a £5.1bn cost for upgrading the UK network for next-generation
broadband, which would increase the
speed of connections linking both residential and business customers to the net,
to 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) and beyond – this would mean a massive
increase in people able to view streaming video almost
instantly once a webpage with video content had loaded. The current average
speed of fixed line connections in the UK is currently 3-4 Mbps, but this all
depends on where you live in relation to your nearest telephone exchange.
There are concerns
however that the cost of a national upgrade (or re-wiring) service may prove to
be too high – indeed a report from the Broadband Stakeholder's Group (BSG)
estimates the cost of installing fibre optic cables to replace the slower,
ageing copper network at somewhere
around £29bn.
There are sources
claiming that the report indicates that the UK government is not obliged to
provide subsidies to telecoms firms in order to accelerate the proposed
upgrade. BT has already said
It plans to put 40%
of UK homes within reach of next generation broadband by 2012 with a £1.5bn investment
to upgrade its network. It looks like we’ll still be kept waiting, unless of
course you happen live in Bournemouth….
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