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BT's superfast broadband to "lag behind demand"
Posted on 12 Nov 2009 at 13:51
Britain's next generation broadband access provision is likely to lag well behind demand, according to research from broadband monitor Point Topic.
The company's Broadband Geography tool has tracked the likely demand across the UK and compared it with the planned next generation access (NGA) rollout as outlined by BT. The results are not pretty.
“The case for more speed keeps rising,” Tim Johnson, chief analyst at Point Topic told PC Pro. “People are coming up against speed constrictions.
“At the moment BT are not really behind demand, but that will change as people realise other areas have better access than them, especially local authorities who will want to ensure they see the economic and social benefits of faster broadband.”
According to the figures, only 1.4% of the population currently has access to NGA broadband, which is understandable in the fledgling rollout. However, only 34% of the population is expected to be connecting via next generation technologies such as extended fibre networks even by the end of 2012.
Surprisingly, it is not only rural areas that are likely to be left behind in the race for NGA access.
“When you see the lists of exchanges it looks as if there's most of the country covered, but it's only when you put it on a map and look at the proposed figures for 2012 that you see it's only the most densely populated areas that are scheduled for next generation access,” said Johnson. “And many big towns are not even under consideration for an upgrade by 2012.
“Swindon is one of the most broadband-centric towns in Britain, but it has no NGA proposals.”
BT told PC Pro it hadn't seen the Point Topic report as it was focussing on its financial reports for Q2, which reported a 45% drop in profits.
Author: Stewart Mitchell
Do we really need this?
Don't get me wrong. I've got my own high speed broadband connection and am no technophobic, but I'm, not even remotely convinced that super fast broadband is necessary. I barely use the capabilities that I have despite being a heavy net user, and I only have what I do because it's part of a larger bundle.
Aside form a few specialist cases, all super fast connections in the home seem to be used for is downloading pirate movies or other P2P content.
How many people actually need super fast broadband for something other than P2P? You can stream HD TV over a regular 8mb broadband connection, just buffer it for 30 seconds, and it's all that's required for most downloading and uploading. You don't need more than 2mb for Youtube, or social networking sites or internet shopping (Which you used to be able to do on a 56k dialup). If you really absolutely must download the latest xGB Linux distro you don't need a 50mb connection, you just need a regular 8mb connection and a bit of patience. Put it on a timer and have it download overnight.
BT needs to put super fast broadband to one side and concentrate it's efforts on making sure that absolutely everybody can get 8mb ADSL at an affordable price. And when I say 8mb, I mean actual 8mb.
Most of the complaints that I hear are from people who get less than 8mb and who only need that full 8mb. They should be BT's first concern.
By Perfectblue97 on 13 Nov 2009 
World Leading
Rather than focusing on whether today's broadband is locally available to deliver today's content, applications and services, there is a different way to view connectivity.
Namely, what are the world leaders doing and then to benchmark the UK against that standard.
The reasoning is simple - if we want to be at the forefront of the global digital economy then we need the infrastructure to support that - words are not enough and neither is "make do & mend"
By FibreGuy on 13 Nov 2009
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