Broadband Deals
Articles on the topic : Broadband News
MP Voices Concern Over City’s Broadband NotSpots
The MP of Inverness, Danny Alexander, has voiced his concern over the city fast becoming a broadband “notspot”.
In a statement he said, “Today’s BBC research is a salutary warning of the problems being faced by broadband users across the country.”
“There is real frustration among rural parts of the Highlands that broadband is still not available and that the Scottish Government scheme for satellite access in remote areas is much more expensive than people expected.”
He continued, “But the problems are not limited to the rural areas. In the last few months several businesses based in Inverness have contacted me because they are frustrated by falling broadband speeds in the city.”
“They find that speeds routinely fall below 2Mbps, and that it is often almost impossible to get a high speed connection from lunchtime onwards as other users go online.”
The main concern is that Inverness’s economy is suffering because of the low broadband speeds. Lord Carter has so far missed out Inverness as an area that needs next generation broadband. However, Mr Alexander says that the Highlands were once a leader in telecommunications and they could be again if they were one of the first to receive next generation broadband.
Top broadband ‘notspots’ were announced last week by the BBC with the study showing just how poor the UK broadband speeds currently are.
Far from affecting only the rural areas, there are some broadband notspots that are situated in towns and cities. Inverness is just one example of this and it will no doubt cause more concern about how realistic the 2012 Digital Britain goal of 2Mb broadband for all actually is.
3 Million Homes With Under 2Mbps Broadband Speeds
A new study commissioned by the BBC has revealed that nearly 3 million UK homes have broadband speeds less than 2Mbps.
Interestingly, it is not just rural areas that are suffering from poor broadband speeds, if any. The survey shows that commuter belt areas near major towns and cities are also affected – with Hampshire being one of the worst affected counties.
In order to receive a broadband speed of at least 2Mbps, a property needs to be 4 kilometres or less away from the local telephone exchange.
The survey, which was conducted for the BBC by broadband specialist firm SamKnows, found that 50% of homes in Basingstoke in Hampshire are at least 6 kilometres away from the exchange.
Worst still, 25% of all postcodes in Hampshire had broadband speeds less than 1Mbps.
Slow broadband speeds mean many websites cannot be viewed properly, including social networking sites and the BBC iPlayer. It also prevents people from being able to work flexibly from home.
With the government’s interim Digital Britain report outlining plans for all UK homes to have a minimum broadband speed of 2Mbps by 2012, this latest study raises the question as to how realistic that plan is.
The final Digital Britain report is due next month and is expected to recommend wireless, mobile and satellite broadband as options to help solve the UK’s broadband coverage & speed problems.
Brits Urged To Compare Broadband Deals & Switch
British consumers are being urged to compare their current broadband deal and to switch to a cheaper supplier wherever possible.
The advice comes from a popular broadband website whose recent survey found that only 10% of broadband customers switched to a better deal in 2008 – with many of the remaining 90% thinking they currently had a good deal.
Furthermore, Brits could be paying up to 40% more than they have to for their current broadband package as the cost of broadband in general has reduced by 37 percent from February 2008 to February 2009.
A spokesperson for the website warned Brits against hanging on to a legacy tariff. They said, “Broadband is in danger of becoming the forgotten bill. By switching, or asking for a better deal, customers can get a newer, cheaper and faster service.”
It seems madness that in such bleak economic times, many Brits aren’t choosing to lower their broadband bills. Many consumers are happy paying more for their broadband rather than facing the prospect and perceived hassles of changing broadband provider.
Surely it’s time for consumers to think again though, as switching broadband providers can be straight forward.
Calls For Illegal File Sharers To Have Broadband Cut
There are growing calls and pressure being put upon the government to force illegal file sharers to have their broadband service cut off.
The calls come from bodies within the creative industry who ultimately want a commitment from the government to stop illegal downloads and to disconnect persistent users who have already been warned.
According to the eight bodies which represent the creative industry, more responsibility should be given to internet service providers. However, the ISP’s are reluctant to take more responsibility. They claim they do not wish to have an internet policing type role or the costs associated with it.
Currently if an ISP thinks that a user is sharing illegal files, they can write a letter to the user to warn them against doing it. This is usually enough to put that user off repeating the offence. However, this is not always the case.
The government have already tried to address the issue and earlier in the year, David Lammy, the UK’s Intellectual Property Minister said, “We can’t have a system where we’re talking about arresting teenagers in their bedrooms.”
However, the creative bodies are adamant that something needs to be done. As it stands the government have set a target to reduce the problem by up to 70% in the next few years. This means that it is likely that new measures will be introduced in the not so distant future to better address the problem.
Cheaper Broadband Lifts UK Connections To 17.3m
Cheaper broadband deals are thought to have helped lift the number of broadband connections within the UK to over 17 million.
Ofcom’s latest Telecommunications Market Data Update has shown that residential and small business broadband connections reached 17.3 million in the last quarter of 2008.
These new figures show that the broadband sector has grown by 11% within a year, with 1.7 million new connections recorded – which shows that despite the economic downturn, the broadband industry is still performing well.
However, there are some who think that the new Ofcom figures are not giving the full picture. This is because the figures do not reflect the sales of mobile broadband connections which is a sector which has grown enormously over the past 12 months.
The 11% year on year rise in UK broadband connections is not overly surprising when you take into account a recent survey conducted by O2 that showed that the majority of the British public would cut down on their food bills rather than their broadband bills.
Overall the new figures published by Ofcom show the important role a fast internet connection is playing in people’s lives. In recessionary times, broadband is helping people to search for work as well as to apply for jobs online.
It is no wonder why so many people are unwilling to cut back on their broadband bills and why there is a steady growth in broadband connections each year.
Faster Broadband Speeds To Have Limitations
As the UK rejoices at the prospect of faster broadband speeds up to 100Mbps, the Managing Director of Commercial Ventures at Quintain Estates has warned that there could be speed limitations.
Quintain Estates has recently built the Wembley City development in London which offers tenants fibre optic broadband speeds of up to 32Mbps. Known as Velocity1, there is also the option for residents to increase their speeds to 100Mbps for £1 per 30 minutes.
James Saunders, Quintain’s Managing Director, said it had good reasons for not offering the top line 100Mbps speed to the homes. He said, “The market’s not really geared up yet for 100Mbps in a residential context”. There are a lot of servers that are tuned to the market norm of 4 to 8 Mbps.”
He also warned that there were limitations to the wider broadband infrastructure that were beyond the control of net providers that could dent expectations of what that faster speed could deliver.”
Of the limitations, Saunders said, “What we can’t control is the speed that other people can serve content that you can download from their servers.”
The high speed benefits of fibre optic broadband will also be limited if the solution implemented is only fibre to the cabinet and not fibre to the home.
Fibre to the cabinet still relies upon old copper wires to pass the data to each home. These copper wires were originally developed to carry voice signals, but have been adapted to carry computer data too. Compared to the fibre optic networks to the home, they simply cannot handle the additional data and thus high speeds up to 100Mbps may be difficult to achieve.
BT recently said it was “not economically viable” to take fibre all the way into homes, although this may change depending upon demand and Government investment.
