BT has told government ministers that through “inexpensive modifications” they could extend their high speed broadband connections to 93% of the population.
The talk of this comes as BT try to find ways to help achieve what the Digital Britain report wanted to achieve which was that everyone in the UK should have access to a broadband connection of at least 2Mb by 2012.
Currently BT has about 85% coverage of households with 2Mb broadband according to estimates by Ofcom and BT believe that due to their introduction of ADSL2+ technology (that can deliver maximum theoretical broadband speeds of 24Mb), improvements in peoples home wiring and the installation of second lines that this could be increased to 93%, just leaving 7% who would need to be sorted via other means such as satellite broadband or mobile broadband.
Currently the main talk has been for mobile broadband to cover the areas that are unable to achieve the 2Mb broadband target, with the government working with the mobile operators and looking at the possibility of giving access to part of the broadcast spectrum to them.
A BT insider told the Guardian newspaper:
“investment needs to be directed towards the most efficient solution and away from giving the mobile operators an unjustified subsidy. The fixed line network not only provides the best solution, it is also open to all operators on an equal basis thereby fostering competition rather than strangling it.”
As the BroadbandGenie website pointed out, it is a bit strange how BT can now find inexpensive improvements to their own network once the mobile operators were being offered deals by the government.