Superfast broadband is nearly here, but will it be available to everyone, and will subscription costs create a nation of web haves and have-nots? PC Advisor investigates.
What's happening in Broadband Britain?
Broadband never really disappears from the news or advertising. It's big business. And it's increasingly the means through which our entertainment and information needs are fulfilled. TV, music streaming, gaming, social networking and teleworking all depend on a good, solid web connection.
Lose your TV signal and you lose one means of receiving information; lose web access and you can no longer email, Facebook, browse the web for gossip or more meaningful information, or reach out to friends across the globe.
Many of us now spend more of our free time surfing the web and chatting on Facebook than we do on any other leisure activity. The web is becoming the main way we reach the outside world, so more reliable means of using it can only be a good thing.
Our increasing use of the web means our data demands have increased exponentially – and they will continue to grow.
Thankfully, a whole new broadband backbone is coming to a street near you soon. It's fatter, faster and much more reliable than old copper cable – and in the coming months, you'll be hearing more and more about it.
Marketing efforts are about to get much more prevalent as BT and its wholesale partners begin a mammoth push on the back of the fibre-optic broadband rollout. Promising download speeds of 20 megabits per second (Mbps) as a minimum and as much as 100Mbps as a theoretical maximum, the new breed of super-fast broadband is a high-stakes game.
In just a few months' time, connection speeds touching 400Mbps may be launched, while yet faster speeds promise to finally lift at least some parts of Broadband Britain out of the technological doldrums and on to the information superhighway.
Although such heady heights are a long way off, BT has already ploughed £2.5bn into fibre-optic broadband. It says that by the end of this year, such services will be available to four million households or 40 percent of the UK.
By 2015 this reach will be as much as 65 percent of the UK. With the infrastructure well on its way to being in place, it's now time for individual broadband service providers to start convincing customers like you and me that blistering speeds are worth having – and worth paying for.
What's happening in Broadband Britain?
There's still an availability gulf, but UK broadband connections on the whole are getting faster. SamKnows, which telecoms regulator Ofcom uses to help monitor actual broadband speeds, announced in July that since last year the average connection has risen from 4.1Mbps to 5.2Mps.
One of the reasons the UK average connection now runs at more than 5Mbps is that ISPs continue to tweak the hardware and the ADSL telephony to eke the maximum performance they can from it. Consumers can also reap improvements by keeping on top of upgrades and firmware updates to their broadband routers. If you're still using the modem router that came with your original broadband subscription, switching to a newer device can bring immediate benefits.
But the actual web speeds delivered by our 'up to' 20Mbps ADSL2+ connections often fall far short of their headline figures. This failure to deliver has prompted Ofcom to act against ISPs selling broadband in this manner, and consumers will eventually be given the option to cancel a subscription that delivers connection speeds slower than what's been promised. This legislation won't become effective until the end of the year, unfortunately, but at least it gives customers some sort of comeback.
In the meantime, a brave new world of far faster broadband is being rolled out. Based on a fibre-optic network known as BT Infinity, it's a whole new approach to home broadband. Unshackled from the limitations of copper wires, it's less likely to end up being tarred with the same 'disappointing' brush that has dogged ADSL 2+ and local loop unbundling (LLU).
In fact, first impressions from those who have been involved in fibre-optic broadband trials have been glowing, as one customer we spoke to explained (see 'Fibre-optic broadband in practice', on the next page).
And while the number of places where fibre-optic broadband is ready to go is still limited, the number of enabled BT exchanges is now more than 150.
NEXT: Fibre and the Final Third >>
Comments
Geoft said: Agree with Patrick Am close to City Centre but can only get 1Mbps and that only on a VERY good day Besides transmission speeds are not information rate A data packet may fly down the line but if packets have long intervals in between due to router congestion at an exchange what good is that
GetReal said: Until theres a pay as you use approach to stifle bandwidth hogging by heavy downloaders games players iplayer junkiesetc therell never be enough capacityDespite Cytecks obvious dislike of BTgovernment investment has to be paid for by the end user Always remember governments dont have any money - they spend taxpayers money Projects like universal high speed broadband only become possible especially in the current economic climate if paid for by the end user Neither BT nor any other company can afford the outlay necessary to provide universal high speed broadband unless it has a guaranteed return on its investment in a reasonable time scale And at current prices that isnt going to happenBut on the upside you dont need broadband Its a lifestyle choice You wont become disabled or die if you dont have an xxxmbps connection
JTeagle said: the number of enabled BT exchanges is now more than 150So what I live in a suburban area but because of the poor coverage of those BT exchanges Im so far away from my nearest that I can only get an insulting 05 Mb My Mum lives out in the stix and she can get 55 Mb Unless that fibre optic cable runs right down my road this is nothing more than another pointless marketing campaign Im on Virgin cable and I have hit as high as 17 Mb When BT can compete with that in the real world as opposed to in their marketing slogans they can come knock on my door
Gruff said: Looks like hull will be left behind again
CowJam said: Did BT write this for you Ive had a 50mbps connection for about a year and Ive been on fibre optic broadband for a decadeIts a whole new approach to home broadband if you ignore cable
Solicl said: Why bother with 100MBb broadband when most of us cant even handle the simple 2Mb connection due to far exchanger BT doesnt care about other Cities only those major one UK has the worst Broadband network all thx to BT not upgrade their parts and catered those with slow speed
Pauladev said: Welford on Avon 5 miles from Stratford on Avon and 16 miles south of Birmingham barely has mobile phone reception Sky broadband has not reached there and Review is marginal When can I have my 100 Mb connection
Roy Beesley said: Talk of 20-40-100-400mbps is all pie in the sky to myself I am stuck with around 488kbps have no choice of cable or any othe means of getting any faster speeds simply I am stuck with a BT line and an exchange Armitage Staffs that does not appear to be getting updated in the near futureAny suggestions would be welcomeroy365netzeronet
D Jarmey said: All very well but I expect that the areas that have the fastest broadband now will be the first to get even faster speeds Whilst some of us still barely get 2mps and often pay much more for a truly lousy service When is it ever likely to be fair
WhiteTruckMan said: Nearly here Thats akin to nearly pregnant only not as much fun
GetReal said: BT a monopoly Wake up
Cyteck said: No1 Virgin Media have been offering 50meg connections for sometime so its really nothing newNo2 The problem with poor broadband distribution here in the UK is down to a lack of government backing by several governments over the last 10 years or more No3 Lack of investment underfunding of national level telecoms infrastructure Data pipes networks amp routers amp serversetcNo4 Most ISP are hobbled by a dreadful BT BT get away with this because they are still a monoploy ADSL performance quality is abysmal to put it politely
Patrick said: to be fair its all good getting 400mpbs but it would be nice that instead of updating customers with a superfast connection already to update customers with a fairly slow connection less then 1mpbs this i find frustrating