Data Centre Costs Could Hinder UK Broadband Speeds

The high costs of building the huge data centres required to support the government’s Digital Britain plans could force companies to build them in Europe and thus hinder broadband speed progress within the UK.

The claims come from Derek Webster, an Associate Director of McBains Cooper who told the Times that the average data centre uses as much power as the city of Leicester.

The restricted broadband speeds are likely to mainly affect small businesses and those who work from home.

It could also affect the financial sector, with Webster saying, “When it comes to, say, the financial services industry, a delay in movement of information or money of a millisecond can cost tens and millions of dollars. So the demand is to keep those data centre servers close by”.

Expensive land and electricity prices as well as patchy fibre optic infrastructure just outside of London is making the UK an unsuitable place to build data centres.

Unless these prices change, it’s likely that the Digital Britain report will have its major organs placed in other European countries such as Germany, France and Sweden.