As we reported yesterday, Stephen Timms, Minister for Competitiveness, made his first speech about how the government should look at next-generation super-fast broadband.
Mr Timms even went on to say that this was one of his "personal priorities".
What is needed is for the UK to install Fibre To The Home (FTTH) like is being done in other countries such as Japan, France, Germany and the Netherlands. Japan already boasts 6 million Fibre customers.
However the stumbling block comes with the estimated cost for installing Fibre cable across the UK to be in the region of £15 Billion with BT saying that they cannot justify these costs to install it.
Fibre-Optic cable is used on BT 21st Century Network (21CN) but between the telephone exchanges and peoples homes copper is used. This means that the maximum speed a user can receive broadband with on ADSL2+ is 24MB, although this speed is only achievable in perfect conditions. If Fibre was used between the exchanges and the home then these 100MB speeds would be achievable.
A target of 100MB broadband for 40% of the UK by 2012 was set by a member of the BSG.
This issue is unlikely to go away either, as the longer the UK waits the further behind we are likely to fall to other countries.
Author: Rob Cook Copyright: BroadbandWatchdog.co.uk - NetMediaUK.com
