Not sure what the government is up to on this one but it is now official – high speed broadband for all and it came from The Queen! “Measures will be brought forward to create the right for every household to access high speed-broadband”… “Legislation will be introduced to improve Britain’s competitiveness and make the United Kingdom a world leader in the digital economy.”
Changes of law can take some time to be ratified so don’t get your hopes up it you’re waiting for your 2Mb download speed to increase in the near future. Once the law becomes official like your legal right to water, electricity and the post, there’s a small matter of investing in the infrastructure.
We’d also expect that politically vulnerable seats to be upgraded before the safe or ‘no chance’ seats along with areas already targeted for higher returns. Areas with low density business/residential population will go to the back of the cue so based on that Scottish Highlands will be in for a long wait!
But why has this government implicated an act of law?
Ok, so it’s a vote winner but why hasn’t the infrastructure owner done this already. Surely it’s in their interest to increase the network?
BT have consistently denied a decent service non-profitable areas like rural areas, concentrating resources into more profitable densely populated areas. From a business point of view you can understand that but as the profits increase you’d like to think BT would spread the technology into less profitable areas. After all, no one else can do this work!
Like many broadband users on a low download speeds we were very disappointed to see BT sink £millions into sport, football to be precise. the figures are eye watering…
- Nov 2013: £897m Champions League, 3-year deal
- Feb 2015: £960m Premier League, 3-year deal
- Mar 2016: £25m a year FA Cup, to 2021
BT has preempted the government with a £6 billion investment proposal in “faster broadband and mobile services” but how much could have been invested had the football gamble not proceeded and how many low speed areas would be enjoying quicker speeds today.
Offcom appear to be toothless and despite several government inquiries BT do what they want, totally ignoring the millions of UK residents that can’t use the web based technology thus stifling business and education for the unfortunate ones.
In Europe we lag behind some of the lesser countries with an below average (8.75Mb (down) 7.78 [www.ispreview.co.uk 2015] yet as a country we are allegedly the 5th wealthiest in the world!
Politically this is the first body blow for BT but is it? Has there been some negotiating before The Queens speech? and what does “the right for every household to access high speed-broadband” mean? We have the right to a postal service but it doesn’t make the post more efficient or quicker.
Me thinks the apprentice has been sent for a ‘long weight’!
excerpts from: www.bbc.co.uk/news/business
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