The coalition government is outlining plans today to bring super-fast broadband to every community in the UK, the plan being to give every area a “digital hub” which will give web users access to a fibre-optic network for a 2015 date.
The plan is for ISPs to provide two-thirds of the network, with the government funding the other third with BBC licence funds. The areas most likely to get the state funds are expected to be the ‘hard to reach’ rural areas which are currently suffering sub-standard internet services.
The strategy report for the project states that; “In order to determine what constitutes ‘the best’ network in Europe, we will adopt a scorecard which will focus on four headline indicators: speed, coverage, price and choice. These will be made up of a number of composite measures rather than a single factor such as headline download speed”
If the UK is to get super-fast broadband we can expect to see at least 24Mbps speeds across the country – this being Ofcoms minimum speed allowance for a connection to be called this. Unfortunately, no real specifics have been stated at this moment of how fast the services of this plan will be, with Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt simply saying that this would be Europe’s ‘best’ broadband network.
Whether the kind of service speed Ofcom considers super-fast will be a bit more than the Government can handle at the moment will be evident in the coming years. But at these early stages it’s probably better to remain optimistic even if we would have to wait 4 years.