Overseas countries are way ahead when it comes to Broadband services due to BT’s reluctance to install fibre optics to each and every home in the UK. At a cost of £15 billion, they are concerned that they will not make a big enough profit to warrant that sort of expense. They are also convinced that the need for faster connections is not necessary yet and in true British style they do not wish to prepare ahead – just try to fix the problem once it’s here!
If these changes were implemented, it would bring speeds of between 50Mbps and 100Mbps, making the whole internet business speedier and easier. Fibre optic cables would replace the current copper versions, doing away with any noise issues.
Although BT have committed to installing fibre optic cables in all new builds, it is currently looking at a cheaper option to speed up internet connections for its customers. VDSL (Very High Speed Digital Subscriber Line) would cost around £5 billion for nationwide installation and is a hybrid solution using a combination of copper and fibre.
This option would require BT to install 90,000 new cabinets at street level but would also house new high bandwidth applications such as HDTV as well as normal telephone services and general internet services.
This service would provide internet speeds of up to 30Mbps but is still dependent on distance from the exchange. This seems a pretty poor option after looking at fibre optics, although the chances for it to be developed up to speeds of 100 Mbps are high but will take time.
ADSL2+ is BT’s internet connection that should be in every exchange by 2011 with speeds of up to 24Mbps if you live near an exchange and don’t have a noisy fridge! This is because the copper lines pick up electromagnetic noise from other household appliances and this will cause interference or possible loss of connection.
It seems BT is not head of the game when it comes to internet provision. Those supplied by H2O broadband networks have been enjoying faster connection speeds for some time. H2O have agreed a deal with water authorities to install fibre optics via the sewers. Known as FOCUS (Fibre Optical Cable Underground Sewer), this system has been in use since 2003 in universities in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Bournemouth.
There is no need for the supply of fibre optic internet connection to be time consuming or costly as BT claim. H2O say that by using sewers instead of digging up roads to install the cables, they can reduce installation time from 6 – 12 months for a 2km stretch down to literally four hours with a huge reduction in costs.
H2O plan to begin rolling out this service to private and business customers around the UK in March this year so it would seem that unless BT can swallow their pride and play catch up, they could be losing a lot of business.
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