Super fast broadband, a worthwhile investment?

31 Oct

The telecoms regulator Ofcom has said that in order to keep up with the world market the UK needs high speed, fibre optic broadband. Unfortunately the cost of replacing the copper telephone line wires currently being used will be immense. Currently most connections (including wireless broadband) use phone lines which are slower than fibre optic cables.

High bandwidth services such as online video can struggle on slower connections although most broadband users don’t encounter problems. The issues may arise as what we do online changes whilst the infrastructure stays the same. A good internet infrastructure is vital for business as well as home users. A good wifi connection in public spaces is also important.

There continues to be some debate about who should be paying for the upgrade given the current economic climate. According to The Broadband Stakeholder Group (who advise the government) the cost could be £28.8 billion connect the entire country via fibre optic cables.

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    [...] telephone line might mean more expense but it generally means faster speeds. Whilst we wait for fibre optic broadband using a standard copper phone line is as fast as you can [...]
  2. 4G Mobile Broadband On The Way? | Words About Things - 03. Dec, 2008

    [...] base. As the copper phone lines supporting the current system begin to seem a little out dated fibre optic broadband begins to seem like a real possibility. The only problem there is that nobody seems to want to pay [...]

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