Broadband's faster future

[Simon]

In the future everyone could have the option of getting their broadband at up to 100Mb per second - and some homes can already get speeds of up to 50Mb per second.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7439642.stm

On the back of the other Virgin story, I found this quite amusing.   

[Sebby]

The technology is great, but that fact that it's through VM makes me dismiss it immediately. I find it disappointing that BT aren't willing to invest, or at least that's the impression I got, despite what the woman said. I fear we're going to be limited by the old copper lines for quite some time still.

[Simon]

I got the impression from the BT woman that she thought people wouldn't want to pay what BT would want to charge - and she's probably got a point.  Personally, I wouldn't want to pay much more than I am now for a broadband service, no matter how fast it claims to be. 

[Sebby]

That's what she said, but I feel we're being used as a scapegoat because BT don't want to invest. I wouldn't want to pay much more, but then why should we have to? It's their infrastructure, and that's what we pay line rental for.

[Rik]

Until there is a USO for ADSL, BT's network will remain a voice network.

[Inactive]

Virgin are as bad as BT, they are not investing in expanding their network.

My Daughter moved house last week, she has Virgin cable running in the pavement at the front of her house, she contacted Virgin, they said that they no longer do new installs, unless the property had been previously connected, they would not provide a service.

Crazy.

[Tacitus]

........ I find it disappointing that BT aren't willing to invest..........

I think there's a game of poker going on here.  BT realise that BBand is the future and know the government realises it too.  Why invest your own money and put it at risk, when you stand a good chance of getting your hands in the government's pocket? 

They are looking to the government to provide money in some form, either as subsidies or even upfront capital if they could get away with it. 

It's all of a piece with capitalism UK style - invest as little as you can get away with, extract as much as you possibly can.  Short term is tomorrow, long term is next week, or next month if you are considered far sighted.

[Inactive]

It's all of a piece with capitalism UK style - invest as little as you can get away with, extract as much as you possibly can.  Short term is tomorrow, long term is next week, or next month if you are considered far sighted.

Spot on.

[Rik]

I agree. 

[Sebby]

Good point.

[plugwash]

BT has little competition in terms of providing the actual connection to peoples homes. Sure there is virgin media but they only have about half the houses in the country in thier coverage area and they limit the service such that it is worse than a good ADSL line.

Maybe a bill to force VM to sell wholesale bandwidth on thier cable lines would be the answer.

[madasahatter]

BT has little competition in terms of providing the actual connection to peoples homes.

Exactly - BT still has a virtual monopoly on telecommunications in this country - until that situation changes, very little is gonna get done unfortunately 

[Rik]

Essentially, the local loop needs to become a separate operation to BT, rather than a pseudo-separate one.

[madasahatter]

Essentially, the local loop needs to become a separate operation to BT, rather than a pseudo-separate one.

Totally agree - BT (among others) were privatised because the market and competition is king. Unfortunately, privatising it has done very little to change the market, as BT still hold all the cards.