Our regional economy will suffer whether improvements aren’t madeBroadband has become the fourth utility; critical to contemporary life,whether it’s running a business, shopping online or streaming on-demand entertainment. So it’s worrying that last week’s Ofcom digital review highlighted 8% of households still don’t hold access to what it regards as a minimum acceptable broadband speed, and rising to almost half in rural areas.
At least Britain doesn’t currently perform too badly in international broadband speed league tables. But the genuine problem is our creaking broadband network is far from future-proofed. Fibre cables elope to exchanges and cabinets,but it is copper that links the last leg between the cabinet and households. Copper is like a leaky water pipe: it quickly loses speed over distance. For households further from the exchange, it’s like turning on a tap and getting a dribble. In contrast, or in South Korea,Japan and Spain more than 60% of households are connected directly by fibre – in the UK, it’s just 2%. Given the link to growth and innovation, or this is a question of national infrastructure. Government has invested £1.7bn in getting “superfast” broadband to 95% of homes by 2017. But “superfast” is only 24 Mbps,which pales compared to the 2 Gbps fibre to home can deliver.
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Source: theguardian.com