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| Time to get serious about real superfast broadband in Britain | Time to get serious about real superfast broadband in Britain |
| (about 1 month later) | |
| The National Audit Office's report last week into the proposed roll-out of superfast broadband across the UK was worrying on a number of counts. First, it indicated that the project is running nearly two years late in its stated aim to make broadband speeds of 24Mbps available to most of rural Britain. Second, the patchwork quilt of providers expected to provide this service never materialised. In fact, all but one melted away, leaving BT to win the licence for all 44 projects and snap up £1.2bn of subsidies in the process. And, perhaps most worryingly, the report concluded that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) does not have clear enough oversight of the contracts with BT or strong enough assurances over costs. Given that BT is the only player in town, it is imperative that the DCMS investigates the corporation's bid prices. | The National Audit Office's report last week into the proposed roll-out of superfast broadband across the UK was worrying on a number of counts. First, it indicated that the project is running nearly two years late in its stated aim to make broadband speeds of 24Mbps available to most of rural Britain. Second, the patchwork quilt of providers expected to provide this service never materialised. In fact, all but one melted away, leaving BT to win the licence for all 44 projects and snap up £1.2bn of subsidies in the process. And, perhaps most worryingly, the report concluded that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) does not have clear enough oversight of the contracts with BT or strong enough assurances over costs. Given that BT is the only player in town, it is imperative that the DCMS investigates the corporation's bid prices. |
| Leaving aside these issues, there are other concerns, not least the speed of this supposed "superfast" broadband. Simply calling something "superfast" doesn't make it so. The ambition to provide speeds of 24mps compares badly with, for instance, the 100Mbps speeds on offer from the fibre optic that Sweden has already plumbed into the ground. And they compare not at all with what specialists like to refer to as "superfast", ie the use of fibre optic cables that enable gigabit (1,000Mbps) connection speeds. This is the sort of cabling Google is laying in Kansas City. | Leaving aside these issues, there are other concerns, not least the speed of this supposed "superfast" broadband. Simply calling something "superfast" doesn't make it so. The ambition to provide speeds of 24mps compares badly with, for instance, the 100Mbps speeds on offer from the fibre optic that Sweden has already plumbed into the ground. And they compare not at all with what specialists like to refer to as "superfast", ie the use of fibre optic cables that enable gigabit (1,000Mbps) connection speeds. This is the sort of cabling Google is laying in Kansas City. |
| These are the speeds that will be on offer to citizens of Frilford. Angered at being missed out by the BT roll-out, residents of the Oxford village pooled together and engaged a private company. And they are not alone; communities in North Yorkshire, Buckinghamshire, Lancashire and Scotland have followed suit. | These are the speeds that will be on offer to citizens of Frilford. Angered at being missed out by the BT roll-out, residents of the Oxford village pooled together and engaged a private company. And they are not alone; communities in North Yorkshire, Buckinghamshire, Lancashire and Scotland have followed suit. |
| If this government truly believed in localism, might it have been a better idea to offer some part of those £1.2bn subsidies to local communities so that they could get their hands on properly superfast broadband? | If this government truly believed in localism, might it have been a better idea to offer some part of those £1.2bn subsidies to local communities so that they could get their hands on properly superfast broadband? |
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