A new Broadband network; is it really needed
Broadband in the UK has experienced rapid growth in the last decade. Going from one in ten households with a broadband connection to over thirteen million connections within the UK today expansion has been huge. Some would consider that with so many connected; the job of connecting the nation is almost complete. However voices from within the industry are now calling for the upgrading of the current system. This however raises many other questions; how will such a service be provided and at what cost? How fast will such a service be and with the cost of investment to broadband companies will the new network be far reaching enough? Or will it lead to and urban, rural technical divide?
Calls for the government to implement targets for a new broadband network have begun, mainly from the Broadband Stakeholder Group’s chairman Kip Meek, stating that British competitiveness will suffer unless a uniform plan for next generation growth is formulated. The government and service providers have been slow to react mainly due to the fact that any upgrade will require a vast investment in the laying of fibre optic cables to host the new high speed connections. Most companies are not willing to fork out for this until they have reassurance from the government that it will make financial sense. The counter argument to steaming in and laying an entirely new network is to observe how the problem is dealt with in other countries; this however contains an inherent risk that the nation will be left behind technologically.
Both BT and Ofcom have doubts that the service is even needed yet, though, as the companies who will probably be investing in such a network they are entitled to have reservations. However BT and Virgin Media are beginning to trial 20 and 50 megabit per second connections to top-tier customers shortly, bringing a faster internet and the ability for high definition downloads. The games industry would also like to see a faster connection, with the possibility of 100 megabits per second if fibre to house connections were created surely the rapid growth of the online games industry would continue.
The question at the moment is that is this really the right time for a wholesale upgrade of the broadband network? Many service providers are only considering fibre optic connections in newly built housing estates and within city centres. Surely if a piecemeal expansion of the existing broadband network is pursued those in rural areas will suffer as the companies will not foot the bill of taking the fibre optic cables to the localities. As Kip Meek of BSG has stated “Broadband is key to the UK economy and peoples daily lives”. Hence careful consideration must be undertaken before any decision on the next generation broadband network is reached.
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