Posted by Admin on July 17, 2010 – 1:40 pm
Tory Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt says it will take until 2015 before every home in Britain has at least a 2Mbps broadband connection.
The Labour governments target for universal broadband coverage was 2012 but Hunt has now said that this is not pactrical. He reportedly told a gathering of telecoms operators ‘ I have looked at the provision the governement has made to achieve this by 2012 and I am afraid the I am not convinced that there is sufficient funding in place,so while we will keep working towards that date , we have set ourselves a more realistic target of acheiving unversal 2 Mbps access within the lifetime of this parliament’
Currently 99% of homes can get some form of broadband connection but almost 2 million homes cannot get speeds of 2Mbps. Broadband services were launched over 10 years ago and still almost 160,000 rural and remote households cannot get broadband at all.
Hunt has made it clear that he wants Britain to have the best superfast broadband in Europe by 2015 and that is it vital the next generation of broadband networks, offering speeds of up to 40Mbps,is made available to virtually every household.
However BT has warned that it is not economically viable to offer superfast broadband accross the whole of the country. BT have estimated that up to £2 billion of state funding would be needed to achieve universal fibre optic broadband in the future. BT itself has committed to spending£2.5 billion to extend its new fibre optic network.
Hunt has suggested opening up the water mains and sewers to cut the cost of building new networks although he does agree that the commercial operators cannot work alone and help is needed from the governement.
Labour had all0cated about £250 million from the digital switchover fund to pay for universal broadband along with a 50p per land line tax. The tax was abolished in the Tory June budget.
Posted by Admin on March 1, 2010 – 2:14 pm
A Committee of MP’s cosisting of 6 Labour MP’s , 3 Conservative and 2 Liberal Depmocrats all agree that the Governments proposed 50p ‘broadband tax’ is unfair. They consider the tax to be an ill-directed charge saying that most of the people who pay the tax will not benefit from it.
‘The charge will have a greater impact on the less well off who will be paying for an enhanced serivce which only a minority will enjoy’, said the report which was published on Tuesday.
The plan for the 50 p tax was announced last year by the Government in its Digital Economy Bill. The Government promised a universal minimum speed of 2Mbps for all parts of the UK by 2012 followed by a super speed broaband by 2017. It is intended that the this will all be paid for by the 50p tax which all landline customers will pay.
However this tax will only raise about £175 million a year and many in the industry say that the fund will not cover the amount needed to provide such a service to every home in the UK. BT have already estimated that the cost is more likely to be around £5 billion.
The MP’s on the Commitee believe that funding for the broadband should be done out of general taxation and not as a seperate levy on landlines.
The Conservative party has already said that they will scrap the scheme if they come into power at the next gereral election.
Posted by Admin on November 7, 2009 – 4:40 pm
BT has promised to double the number of households that will have access to its super fast broadband network where speeds could reach up to 100Mpbs. They promise to set up 10 % of Britains households ( at least 2.5 millions homes) with ultra fast speeds by 2012. The network will allow their customers to watch streaming HD television whilst surfing the web and downloading music on their PC’s.
The first trials will take place in Bradwell Abbey in Milton Keynes and Highams Park in London where up to 20,000 cutomers will receive the high speed connections by March 2010.
Due to a revision of plans BT will have the new fibre optic network passing through 10 million households although much of the network will be FTTC (fibre to the cabinet) which means it will be connected to the green boxes outside on the streets rather tha plugging directly into peoples homes. Because of this speeds will be slower- maybe 60Mpbs slower- as the final part of the connection to the house will just be a traditional copper phone line. Most ot the new technology will take place in the brownfield sites that already have copper broadband infastructure rather than greenfield areas.
BT is competing with Carphone Warehouse, Virgin Media and BSkyB to bring out high speeds. Virgin Media has already launched broadband at 50Mpbs and is testing 100Mpbs services.
